By Falling Leaves and Raining Sky
by Loopholes47
Summary: Every theory, I figured, came with a good cause and effect. Just one step down and the final piece was already snatched. So which was the more preferable way to be done with it? As if my life was the unknown x, then I'd be a bitter loser who couldn't turn the tables. OC-Insert.
1. Naoki Hino Is Thy Name

**By Falling Leaves and Raining Sky**

 **Every theory, I figured, came with a good cause and effect. Just one step down and the final piece was already snatched. So which was the more preferable way to be done with it? As if my extra life was the unknown x, then I'd be a bitter loser who couldn't turn the tables. OC-Insert.**

 **...**

 **Disclaimer: Naruto story belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

Naoki Hino. That, you could say, was my name.

 _Naoki is thy name._

Haha…

I was Naoki Hino in Amegakure, Konohagakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, Yuugakure, Sunagakure, Takigakure, and everywhere else. Period.

I, Naoki Hino, was born in Amegakure. To be exact, the orphanage that took up the three highest upper levels of the third tallest building in this city. Well… I wasn't born in the orphanage, but the Headmaster said that they took me in when I was one years old. Not old enough to remember a thing about mom or dad. Who, by the way, probably weren't rich enough to care for me; money was a huge problem here. That much any toddler could tell. Just look at all those zeroes at the market!

Though, the currency here always had a lot of zeroes. Unlike from before.

I knew my basic facts, also. Unlike the mean bullies at Hito's. We called the orphanage 'Hito', short for Akihito's Orphanage for Children, since most of us were stupid and needed it abbreviated for our short memories. Unlike them, my memory was sharp. And it was able to remember things from another life.

I had black hair (mind you, the _really_ black hair. Not just dark brown or shades of grey) and bright blueish-green eyes. Sort of like teal, or turquoise. Not much of a difference there, between words. But this eye color would've have been extremely rare (that being so colorful and bright) in my first life.

Now, it must be a little odd and unnerving to remember another life. And in that life, there was advanced technology and everyone shared knowledge. Here, you had to read it since there wasn't something called 'online'. Or travel to all sorts of places for libraries. Or interrogate the person. There weren't too many options for information. Basic math and literature, no problem. S-ranked jutsu? Bleh.

You see, things here were a lot different from before. Classification rankings?

-Civilians/Everybody: E-rank.

-Genin and up: D-rank.

-Chunin and up: C-rank.

-Tokubetsu Jounin and up: B-rank.

-Jounin and up: A-rank.

-Kage and Elite Anbu level: S-rank.

But the biggest change from before and after was _chakra_.

Chakra is unexplainable. Scientist have done _centuries_ of research, and yet nobody has a real, full explanation for it. Chakra is chakra. Easy. Says a chunin that swings by now and then. Pretty much everybody in Hito's wants to become a ninja mainly due to their visits. Ninja-nee-chan and Ninja-nee-san.

Chakra is what makes up this universe. Literally. Everyone has chakra. If you don't, you're dead. Like that.

Ninja, however, can manipulate the chakra in their bodies. And how good you are and what cool things you can do is given a classification level, like the above. Apparently, the jacked up myth of the Sage of Six Paths is real (A sage who created _Ninshuu_ , then humanity changed it to _Ninjutsu_ ). Except nobody but me knows this. All the information and future knowledge of this world is tucked tight in my brain. I only recently came here, being a child, so my memory of before was good. I'd need to write it down in the language called _English_ they used there, mainly so no one could decipher it. If they could decipher a code that hard, then that smartass definitely deserved to know. And all this fore-stuff centers around this _anime/manga_ I _watched/read_. The show was called "Naruto". And by the time the new language was adapted to my tongue, I had figured that out. Finding out my exact location wasn't such a pleasant surprise. History lessons with the school teachers on the seventh floor of the building did all the work. Thanks a lot, Tamaki-sensei. Again, new stuff.

Since I was much more mature than the orphanage children, I viewed them as brats. Not exactly polite, but what they don't know won't hurt them. And we referred to each other by our plain names. Over here, that was considered rude. Honorifics were short suffixes attached to the end of our names for respect.

The term "–chan" usually was used for girls, endearment, or young children. "-San" was kind of formal, but not overly so, roughly meaning something similar to 'Miss' or 'Mister'. "-Kun" was a term for boys, or male friends. Perhaps a tomboy.

The most formal and most respected honorifics were "-sama", then "-dono". "-Sama" was repeatedly used, rather than "-dono", since usually people used that when that person was of general caliber. And nobody was really that high in ranking. You'd figure.

Common stuff was "sensei", "taicho", "nee-chan", "nee-san", blah, blah, blah. Not all had to be suffixes. Some roots. Teacher, captain, older sister, older brother, respectively. There were millions more, even having terms for 'honorable older brother'. Bleh. That was what Sasuke called Itachi before the massacre happened and turned all koo-koo ("Aniki").

Null honorific was plain name. Naoki-chan was what you'd expect, but toddlers were the epitome of indecency. So Naoki it was then.

And back to the unexplainable being explained. Chakra. You got a whole village of chakra-powered ninjas who could, together, demolish the whole country. Not including the Akatsuki and Nagato/Pain's unfair Rinnegan advantage.

Everybody had "chakra reserves", which was like an extra set of veins running throughout the whole body. They were manned by tenkutsu, a base for the running and filtering. You needed a rest and let other stuff pick up on the flow sometimes, right? And because of the tenkutsu points, chakra flowed freely within. Then, there was the core. It was the stomach, for better reasoning (to substitute the lack thereof).

Chakra was magic. Controlled magic. Or so I thought. People found it so easy to explain why chakra wasn't magic. "Chakra is the combination of our spiritual and physical energy, Naoki-chan!" Said Ninja-nee-chan. At least she used honorifics, even though brats like us deserved no formalities.

"Your spiritual energy will keep on expanding if you sleep so much and read so much," I liked libraries. Even though this new language was _so_ darn difficult, reading fiction books and Ikebana (language of flowers) was cool.

"But," Ninja-nee-chan waved a finger around. "You won't balance it enough for your chakra control if the other counterpart is bad. Stop being so lazy!" My sleep was a good benefactor of the day. Sleep didn't involve the other bratty bullies. Sleep was good. Though, I once dreamed of all of the orphanage kids were types of flowers. All blame went on the Ikebana book I had read earlier. I had been a tulip in that dream. Surprising those grew here, considering that even potted plants (which they were) suffered…

But then again, the chunin that day had been right. And I only had one, weak, selfish thought that prevented any counterpart. I didn't like anybody else. It took a lot of nagging for the other girls to involve me in their games. And it took me a few days to finally accept the fact that Ninja-nee-chan had pointed out.

And I _did_ want to become a ninja. Though Amegakure probably wasn't the best ideally place to train. There wasn't even an Academy. You just gathered a group of three with sufficient abilities, find a Jounin to teach you, and BAM. You're a ninja. Though, it took more work than that. Once the Jounin tested your individual abilities and whatnot, you went to the administrative building for a show of jutsu to the officials again, do the paperwork, and create a date with the camera man. They had technology here, but it was nothing compared to my first life. The cameras looked to be out of the nineteenth century. And I was from the _twenty-first_ century.

Really, that was it. But a whole lot of the ninja here were middle-aged. No academy: no skills. Roughly speaking. Over half of the current ninja population were middle-aged genin.

The chunin and jounin we _did_ have were always on missions, making money. The economy was pitifully poor. Nobody had excess weight. Nobody but the older people and the not-as-poor, who were more prone to gaining fat. Everyone else were under average or were average. I wasn't sure what my category was under. Scales were expensive and not really necessary. No wonder Rain ninja had rumors of bad tempers.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Waaaaaaaa!" Cry-baby Kasumi was at it again. The caretakers merely groaned; they were too used to doing the dirty work. The crying triggered even more crying and soon half the room was filled with wailing children. How the poor adults ever caught a wink at night, the world may never know. I blearily rubbed my eyes and stomped out of the room with my thinning blanket while the caretakers dealt with Kasumi. Secretly.

It was dark in the building even without the help of the night. Like so many sleepless nights before, I crept down the hallways. Without worry, since we were too used to sleepless nights so nobody would bother getting out of the respective rooms. Besides me. And the walls had seals in the infrastructure to prevent sound being heard through. Apparently the carpenters were experts with children.

Actually, we had strict rules of staying in bed sans everyone over twelve. The curfew ended nine o' clock at night. I glanced to my right. The digital clock read past midnight, but not quite 1 a.m.

The stupid children of my age couldn't even read yet, but they could read numbers. Because they weren't _that_ stupid. Sensei had a habit of calling out the dumb ones for detention. And detention ultimately made them miss free-time, which everybody liked. So they studied a bit. The caretakers didn't have to watch the children then, so they all made sure to sleep, making up the lost time from night. I did, too. Rather that or read, whenever the night was peaceful. Of course, I was missing out a lot, since most of us kids went outside to explore. The downside that didn't look too pleasant was that it always rained. All. The. Time. You'd think that the sky suddenly dried out when the rain subsided, but that was in fact a bad thing. Five minutes later, there's a storm going about, and you realize that the momentary gap of silence was just the sky getting ready for round two. Which isn't the best of thoughts.

There was a little corner in the library that displayed a human-sized window. A small, rolled up human. But it was on the top floor, so anybody who looked through could see an impressive view of Amegakure. I had niggling suspicion that Masashi Kishimoto designed the Hidden Village from Seattle. Eheh.

But the nice thing about the little crook in the wall was that a huge, over-stuffed couch faced it. And the back was tall enough (or I was short enough) to hide the top of my head. And I closed the library doors, so unless someone out there was _really_ searching for a certain Naoki Hino, they'd never find her. I stole away into the night, reading wonderful works of fiction nobody my age could possible comprehend. Thanks to foreknowledge, my past life had known some of the language. It was only that I had to close the gaps. But as long as nobody really cared less about what I read, then that was fine.

* * *

-o-

* * *

The next morning, I got to the bathroom first. Probably because I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. Yeah, that was it. Earlier today, I had snuck into the kitchen. And heated an instant cup of tea. Yep, they had those. Weird. But cheap.

Even from before, in my past life, I had always been addicted to Earl Grey. And even the love for that certain tea carried over through worlds. Drinks, obviously, were universal. Even a two year old could say that, and know the meaning. Not in that exact format or lettering, since I had my doubts of a baby knowing or being able to speak the word 'universal'. Duh.

And in kanji and the number of strokes for hiragana, no thank you.

I did the routinely bathroom stuff (Everyone had bath time at the end of the day, thirty minutes long; good idea owning a personal orphanage onsen.) and headed out.

Everyone woke up at seven in the morning, even Sundays. Sadly. Breakfast started an hour later, enough time for the cooks (there was the head cook, Kinoe, and his assistant, Yusuke) to make the food. And as an afterthought, let the kids and chaperones get ready. The Headmaster got up at six. Sucks to be him. Though, that was a bit mean. But I wouldn't know, since I was always one of the first ready. Hmm. Earl Grey _did_ have a considerable amount of caffeine. I'd have to watch it, though. Stunting my growth this early on wasn't healthy nor was it favorable. Better than coffee, at least. Before, I'd been allergic to the coffee bean. I didn't know about now. Whelp, better not try and find out. That upset stomach had been painful.

I had roughly an hour of free time. I spent it meditating. If I wanted to be a ninja, I would have to start sometime or later, right? Though, I could totally Shikamaru this one and not have to do any work. Just me and my brains. Hello, hello.

In the end, I had only sensed stuff in my stomach. If I was optimistic enough, I could say I found my center. Pessimistically, that meant my stomach acids were tumbling around due to hunger.

Breakfast was a carton of orange juice (since people cared about our vitamin D) and porridge. Everything tasted like ash. But I wolfed it down anyways, since I knew I needed the energy. And grey skin wasn't on my bucket list. It wasn't vanity. Grey skin not only looked bad, but it meant your very own body wasn't very healthy. Good grief. Then I carefully placed the bowl into the sink, under the watchful eyes of the still-eating cooks. Somebody forgot to take the trash out, so I volunteered to do so. Kinoe shrugged and mouthed a 'whatever' with orange juice still being swallowed. I turned my back to them fast enough to avoid seeing him gag on the juice. I still heard it. It was… gross.

Needless to say, I was still holding the now-empty carton because I didn't bother with reopening the trash bag and close it again just for a piece of cardboard.

And it certainly was a good idea to take the trash out. That meant scavenging the dumpster. I was young enough to pass the trash-y smell as toddler stink, albeit some odd looks. But I had gotten what I wanted.

The rest of the day compromised of two more meals, all tasting that of ash, and chores, and free time. I had slept during free time, since the caffeine had worn off a long time ago. Shouldn't mention that to the Headmaster. Boy, he'd get _angry_.

When cry-baby Kasumi and stuttering Setsuna awoke the whole room (again), I slipped off to the library corner again, with everything I needed covered in the dull green blanket.

A dull, rusty kunai. A pencil (Number Two). Several sheets of yellow paper that were water logged. A scrap of cardboard. Awesome.

The kunai was something I couldn't resist taking, so it wasn't that needed in my planning. But I let the papers dry for a few hours, keeping entertained with yet another book, then hatching my secret plan.

The pencil you could find anywhere in the classroom. But this pencil made all the characters look cool.

Later that day (mid-morning), everybody could hear a rather high-pitched girly scream coming from the Headmaster's office. He came out an hour later, much more dignified, but scathingly mad.

"Who," He asked in a venomous yet quiet tone. "Put those papers in my office?!"

It was lunch hour, so everybody was in the room. Kids looked around awkwardly, not daring to even breathe. My face was in perfect contortion of confusion. Inwardly, I was smiling wider than a Cheshire cat. My drawing skills were awesome, however arrogant that might seem to be thinking.

The days went on. Nothing was mentionable, really. Whenever someone started wailing midnight, I escaped to the library. That happened at least five times a week. And so the days went on. My fourth birthday was a day I had made up, since my biological parent(s) just dropped me off with an age and a name. "Oh, please take in this one year old. Her name's Naoki Hino. Bye-bye!"

Within a couple days, my fourth birthday would come and go. Parties weren't really allowed, since the shortage of money would be a huge problem. And by the time January seventh came and went, I had found my chakra.

You'd think that it would be easy, since I wasn't used to this… this extra limb of energy. But nooo… It was hard.

My mind and brain sensed the chakra within, identifying it as an intruder. Something fuzzy went on in the chakra coils, and the next thing I knew, my whole body was emitting a blue light. I had to wear a dunce cap for the rest of the day because the caretakers thought I was reading under the blanket with a flashlight. But, hey! Cool, cool. The bullies may have picked on me more than usual that day, but I ignored them, fervently day-dreaming about my future chakra skills. The chakra feels warm. It's not gooey, but it's not exactly a liquid either. If I let my body lax and meditate, I could feel it circulating all around. But by that time, I probably choked when the chakra starts fizzing to answer, and one of the veins leads a bit too close to the throat then what I would've liked. But, no puke. No puke.

And, by that time, the sensei calls out my name for attention, since I usually did this in class when stuff got too boring. Come on! I wasn't a child for heaven's sake!

Well, technically, yeah. In the physical world.

In the spiritual world, I probably outranked everyone in the class putting their ages altogether. Excluding the teacher. I wasn't _that_ old.

No offense, Tamaki-sensei. Or should I say, Tamaki-baa-chan. Hehe…

Yes, the school teacher looked old enough to have grandkids. Which, in this world, was ridiculously young.

Again, another change.

The average lifespan was about thirty for ninja. Civilians lasted to, like, eighty. Ancient. So a lot of ninja, if they wanted to, had kids in their late teens or early twenties. By the time they died, the kid was old enough to get a job, since the standards were ridiculously low, and live in his/her own apartment till the paycheck got a raise, or they became ninja and died at thirty again. A never-ending cycle of family failures. Hallelujah.

The Sannin were pretty famous for their ninja caliber, and their old age. They were like, forty? What time zone had I been born in? Certainly not the Second Shinobi War. They wouldn't have history lessons about unknown strangers. And I couldn't tell if there was a war going on or not. Hard to tell when you're stuck in an orphanage all year long. Though, we hadn't gotten any newbies. Those made a mess of things in their first day, good God. And Amegakure definitely wasn't under the control of Hanzo. Anymore.

Konan "Angel-sama" swung by a week after my fourth birthday.

It was surprising.

One, the paper.

Two, the surprise.

Three… Oh my god she was so smack-down gorgeous…

We all gathered in the cafeteria, since that was the only room big enough to accommodate us all. The announcements were thrilling. And terrifying.

"Greetings, young people of Amegakure," Konan said.

"…" We said. Some brats were drooling. She wasn't fazed by our lack of talk and respect. I didn't want to cause a scene, so I smartly stayed quiet in the back of the cafeteria.

She continued on. "I am here today to encourage our youngsters to become shinobi…" Then she said something I couldn't quite understand, since Ameno was snoring to my left. I kicked her feet under the table. She shifted the other way, snoring at some random boy whose name I hadn't bothered to remember. Poor guy.

Eh.

And little brats started to raise their hands. Most of the room, in fact,

"Wait, what's going on?" I had no idea what the heck was going on. Seriously. Thanks a lot, Ameno.

The girl across the table rolled her eyes. "Can't you ever listen? Angel-sama asked us to raise our hands if we wanted to become a ninja." She rolled her eyes again.

Oh. Oh. Oh, that. I hastily rose my dominate hand, along with everyone else. That meant every brat in this orphanage wanted to become a ninja. Oh no. Competition.

Konan took stock of the whole room and smiled. (*oh my gosh, she so was friggin beautiful*)

"Thank you for your time, Daisuke-san." She said, turning to the Headmaster. He bowed, assuring that it was nothing. And he'd do anything for her, blah, blah, blah. Everybody loved Konan. But seriously? They didn't even know her real name. But then again, nobody could (and would) demand it. She was an S-rank ninja with a very close relationship of political matters and plain friendship with the leader of the village who could nearly rival a god in power. Nobody wanted to mess with her. Foreign ninja, don't be stupid. She could rival a Kage, I'm sure. And Nagato could rival, well, the _Nine Tailed Fox_. Even though Ame lacked in numbers, we had great quality.

 _Bargain priced_. Haha.

And awesome potential. I mean, I'm no prodigy, but I was able to find my chakra at four years old. Think about all the other kids, and what they could do if they knew _how_ to activate the energy.

Utter chaos. And powerful power.

And so, Angel-sama left with a gust of paper. It was the abridged version of the Shunshin jutsu, I was absolutely sure. Since Konohagakure kind of created the Shunshin, they weren't sharing, so we other nations had to adapt to their limited distance teleportation stuff.

Ame, I think, left little drops of water when teleporting. Typical. Besides Konan and her paper. Hmm… I wondered if Konan didn't actually make that paper jutsu up and it was actually some sort of long-lost kekkei genkai. That would explain a few things. No eight year old just suddenly created a whole new topic of Ninjutsu. It wasn't done. You'd figure.

She could be a distant relative to the Senju clan, seeing how paper originated from wood. And maybe _really_ distant, so that was why Konan could only manipulate paper. Not wood.

Awesome. I just created a whole new conversational argument in my own head. And someone was shouting my name. Whoopsies.

"Huh?" I blinked, sitting upright on the cafeteria bench. The room filled with quiet giggles. I felt like blushing and demanding for them to stop, but I kept my head cool and played dumb.

"What's going on?" My head tilted sideways to show my confusion. And I didn't even have to act. This was just the exaggerated version of me wanting to know what was up. Curiosity killed the cat.

"Naoki. Detention. My office." Headmaster said. I was still confused. _Wha…?_

 _Cough, cough, cough_ , coughed the Headmaster. "As I was saying, Naoki," that sounded dangerous.

"-there will be tests next month to see if you are… well, _good_ enough to become ninjas."

Great job dumbing down your vocabulary so everyone can understand.

"And I was asking you a question. Can you repeat it?" He turned to my direction, practically glowering.

What, me? "Umm…" I racked my head. What had he been saying? Oh. Haha. Wise-cracks.

"Sir, you were implying that you didn't know what I was doing." I was so getting reprimanded for this. But it was worth seeing that face.

"Detention all week, for your cheek, Naoki. And the dunce cap."

Holy hell. I pulled it off. He ignored my intelligent grammar and skipped straight ahead to the witty remark.

"Yessir."

He rubbed his temples. "I was asking you what I had said to make sure your act was together. Apparently it lead to even a greater mess of things." Haha. Sucks to be you.

And then he skived off topic to a better one.

 _Cough, cough._ "So, the tests will take place February fourteenth."

On Valentine's Day. Kids like us were too young for celebrations like that though. Maybe the test was his Valentine's Day treat? Torture and Exams didn't sound so fun.

"And I will test all of you on your athletics in the morning. And if you can find your chakra by nighttime, then you pass."

Seriously? He's testing us on the worst subjects ever. None of us kids have done athletics in our whole lives (I'm not in on it), besides running and playing tag outside. So only the boys and girls who did would have a head start. Not to mention the eldest here was thirteen. (And he still wants to become a ninja?)

And chakra. Chakra. He's asking us to open our chakra in a span of less than twelve hours. It took me, a completely average person a _whole_ week. What's wrong with that picture?

 _What's wrong with that picture?_

 _What's wrong with that picture?_

 _What's wrong with that picture?_

Oh.

Oh god.

Am I that stupid?

He gave us a month's preparation. Holy smokes. I _am_ stupid.

He probably hadn't realize that no normal person on this planet could open their chakra in a few hours, though. He wasn't a ninja, after all. His expectations, I thought dryly, was that ninja wore all black, had big, shiny weapons, and masks. Except, the best ninja is the one who can slip away unnoticed. Matching the populous, yes.

Image his face when in the far future, several years from now, the most powerful ninja was the one who wears orange and unabashedly shows his bright blond hair. No masks. And was a front-line fighter. Heavy hitter. Triple combo blast. Mwahahaha…

And the only weapon that was big and shiny was Hidan's scythe (so cool, by the way) and Zabuza's Kubikiribocho. But if you see them at all, you're dead. So… no glamour. No glamour.

Of course, you could always throw yourselves at them, saying you were fangirls or Jashinists. That would only deter Hidan, though. He was the dumb one. Zabuza was the smart one. Having reversed roles, that thought was so scary my chakra fizzed. That snapped me back to reality. I didn't want to explain why various body parts were glowing a bright blue to anybody. They might hail me a prodigy, even though it was ridiculously easy with time to open your center up. Act dumb. And dumber.

The days dragged on. A lot of kids came back from outside in time for bed with dripping noses and red faces. Looked like they were running in the rain for the physical test, since they knew that they'd flunk the chakra one.

Meh.

Even though it was certainly certain I'd fail the physicals, I would impress them with my chakra and get a pass anyways. If not…

…Well, then there was always more years to come. Gin was thirteen and hadn't been chosen for ninja life before, so I assumed that they only made this recently. Gin had been born while Hanzo was still ruling Ame, if you do the math.

Probably every two years or so. Ripe potential always started young, as Orochimaru followed his pedophilic ways. Kidnapping prepubescent boys and girls and drugging them to steal their body sounded… odd. Creepy. Strange. Fearful. That's off topic.

Now, what was I thinking about? Umm…

Right.

Test.

While it would be a lot easier to give up and live as a civilian, I just didn't want to. Why? Never those cliché "I-need-to-avenge-someone" moments, or "Because-then-I-can't-protect-myself".

Really, I think that ninjas get better pay so I don't have to do extra work cleaning beer bottles or something awfully atrocious. Yeah. I'm lazy. It's my flow of things. I'm so going to Shikamaru this whole ninja-crap. Just you wait world, just you wait…

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Hey. How's life? Edit number three is here. And so... Bye! Bye! Bye!**


	2. Fail!

**Disclaimer: Naruto story belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I don't own anything but the odd canon and my OC-Insert.**

* * *

The month was full of excitement and chit-chats. Girls squealed. Boys shouted. In triumph. Both of them. And I yawned.

Within the next few days, there would be the Test. I found it a load of crap. I mean, all that bravado for nothing. Only like five students would make it through, anyways. So what was the big deal? Ninja, ninja. The only difference between civilian and ninja was the pay. Oh, and the life-and-death stuff. Haha, can't believe I forgot that.

By then, I could summon my chakra to my hands only. Sort of like scalpels, but way less deadly and not as bright.

The harmless scalpel was in the name. All it did was produce a bright blue glow. It was pretty warm, though. But I couldn't hold it for long. Children's reserves took time to grow. There was a reason why most people graduate after puberty. Ten, eleven, twelve: all pubescent ages. Because the reserves really start to grow during puberty, along with the rest of your body. And food helps. And exercise. Sakura dieted and didn't really do much work, so that was why her chakra reserves were so small. Or it was genetic, being a civilian. They naturally had low reserves.

By the time it was testing day, everyone was so jittery. People lined up outside, and had to reach the finish line by a set time. I failed. By twenty seconds. Typical.

The only ones who completed the task were the older kids. Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. But then again, I was barely even trying. No, I wasn't trying. Physicals were troublesome. The youngest person who made it was a six year boy named Gyoza. No surname.

Funny how I had a last name while most others didn't. There was one guy who had ninja parents and they died during a mission. He was old enough to remember his last name, then. But that meant he was old enough to remember his parents' death. Sad sob stories were everywhere.

The Hino's. Were they a minor clan or civilians? If they were a major clan, then I would've heard something by now, or someone would want to adopt me. So that option was crossed out. And any clan had money, minor or major. So why'd they drop me off? Were they killed? But that wasn't all of my thinking.

The chakra was easy to summon by now, so that was what I did. The Headmaster's eyes bulged and wrote something down on a notepad. The paper stayed dry, since he had an umbrella. Lucky.

Some seven other brats weren't all that stupid and opened up their chakra during the month. I should know, they were bragging about it all over the place last week. Their names were also written down.

* * *

-o-

* * *

The examination ended pretty quickly. Some kids plopped back on their beds with goofy smiles, some depressed. Cry-baby Kasumi was wailing, saying incoherent words. I think it was along the lines of, "I so failed! Waaaah!"

And she was nine years old, to boot!

Next week or so, the mid-morning lunch hour was full of speeches. Angel-sama swung by again with a paper. She congratulated the chosen (but yet didn't say who) with long, boring talk. Ameno was drooling on her long brown hair. And snored. And farted. She was eight; still a brat. Her random snores were interesting to watch, so I completely ignored the ninja talk and payed attention.

 _Drip. Drip. Drip._ Went her drool. Fun, fun, fun.

"And the young who have successfully been able to complete the test, come with me." Whoa, that drew my attention.

"Ameno." Said person jolted awake and suddenly magically understood everything Angel-sama had said, then took long strides to the front. Maybe she was pretending to sleep? Nobody could understand ten minute long speeches in a matter of seconds just by reading the atmosphere of the room.

"Kasumi Jiro." Kasumi squealed. Holy hell! I was NOT going to be a ninja along with that brat! Never! Now I really wanted to fail and take the next test, if they had one. Kasumi was waaaay more than just a cry-baby. NEVER get deceived by that innocent little cherub smile of hers. Never.

And thus forth, my lazy brain finally started to take in the early morning Earl Grey caffeine. I was going to be super tired later.

"Gin." The eldest not surprising.

"Jirobo Dotou."

"Haru."

"Sen." I stopped paying attention. Hmm… Thumb twiddling was surprisingly fun.

"And Kirimi Natsu. Now you will follow me." Hum. I failed. Eh, there was always next time. But the name _Kirimi_? Seriously? That sounded like _cream_ or _kill me_.

 _Kill-me summer_. Nice name.

And thus the eight left. Seven to-be-ninja and one S-ranked ninja. Now. Thinking. What had I done wrong?

Physics.

Aw, well, maybe I'll try harder next time… Not.

I'll grow bigger and stronger naturally, even though the tallest I could probably grow would be no higher than a hundred-fifty centimeters (roughly 5'3"). And that'd be in the next _ten years_. Not one. Assuming that the next test would take place in another year.

* * *

-o-

* * *

Several – no, _everybody_ – was disappointed. Besides me. Of course.

That night, a whole bucket load of young girls in the dorm were sniffling, whining how they just lost their chance to become ninja. Aw, don't cry! There's always next time! Right?

…Hopefully.

It would suck ducks if I had to clean sake bottles the rest of my life as a civilian. Though, that might not be exactly true. I just had to impress them. But I already proved that I could control and function my chakra. And they didn't take me. So the big question was, how could I impress Angel-sama?

Right before the curfew ended, the seven came bouncing back inside. Girls crowded over Ameno, Sen, Kasumi, and Kirimi. Hmm. I just noticed that more girls passed than guys. That was… surprising. It was a well-known fact that there weren't a lot of kunoichi in the world. Guys to girls, a ratio of 3:1. Or less. It was that there were so many disgraces as kunoichi, they quit and pursued their fangirl dramatics as civilians, where they wouldn't die quite as easily. And there weren't that many females in general. Some kind of birth defect/genetic. So I was special… in a way…

Anyway, sexist birthing aside, it was night-night. And all that physical labor exhausted me, so I slept peacefully.

The next few mornings were filled with bragging. Mainly by Kasumi and Kirimi. All the boys boasted about it, too. Ameno was too laid-back (not lazy, but extremely lax) to care and Sen was too shy and nice and innocent. Like any sweet five year old. She wouldn't brag. What Sen _would_ do was hang around Ameno like a trailing fungi. More and more of the fungus accumulated on Ameno's back until they started sleeping together on the same bunk, giving her own to a newbie that came to us recently. The girls' barracks were starting to get a little crowded. It was kind of sad to know how many homeless orphans there were. And the meals were getting smaller and with cheaper ingredients. We were running out of money. That much I could tell.

As the weeks passed by, the next thing I knew was that it was spring. That meant more rain. By that time, I learned how to cover myself with a very thin layer of chakra so I could be rain proof. Apparently every ninja in Ame knew that trick, also. Good thing we didn't need to expend on cold medicine. And I accidently learned it while taking out the trash two blocks down. It was raining, cold, wet, and miserable. I wanted to be warm, so I called chakra to cover my body, but instead, it protected me from the water. Nice tricks we had here. Everyone had to adapt to their habitats somehow. And even though the body surface was a large area to cover, the thinness of the shield made up for it. So I had enough chakra to run down and back twice. Nice, huh?

The selected trained every day for at least an hour. The brats were so dedicated.

Since we literally had no knowledge or books on chakra besides our vague imagination, the only thing they did was train their bodies. The girls only did yoga and practice standard kata that even civilian knew, but the boys practiced push-ups and sit-ups and chin-ups with the broken metal posts. They all ran around the buildings on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. I was so proud. And so were the caretakers. But they weren't so flamboyant with their pride when the kids came in with colds. The caretakers let them soak in the waters for an extra five minutes.

Now that Kasumi _finally_ understood her situation of being " _the most responsible – now that I'm a ninja-to-be_ ", she slept without crying or flailing from her fear of the dark. And everyone was happy! That meant the caretakers could catch up on their sleep and not supervise chores with a yawn. And I could finally go outside without having to sleep the caffeine off! Everybody wins!

I hung around Sen and Ameno, since they were the nicest brats I'd ever seen. Not because I wanted to hang around the "cool kids". And nobody cared. They'd given up long ago of befriending them. All the girls envied Ameno's beauty and Sen's adorable face. The guys were in their "cootie" stage. Whereas they detested the girls because they thought we had a germ called, "the cooties". Highly immature, they were.

The two girls were on their off-day Wednesday, so they just wandered around the village. I made mental notes of the map for future references. Then when it seemed to be about eight-thirty, we headed back. They didn't notice that I wasn't getting wet. That was because I lugged behind them and a few days earlier, learned how to create the shield without the bright visibility.

The days went on. Slowly.

By the time summer arrived, I could stick to the wall using my hands and knees in a crawling sort of tree-walk. I did that during free-time, when I would run off to an abandoned dead-end alley. But it was more like half a tennis court.

The food tasted more and more like rotten meatballs. I sometimes skipped lunch just to avoid it. The ingredients were getting so cheap and nasty. The orphanage was gradually dying. Two boys and one girl got adopted. Haru, an eleven year old, became a ninja. Thirty percent of his funds went to Hito. Seventy percent was his to decide. Kasumi was adopted in June. Good riddance. The parents were going to regret their decision by night time. Poor, poor folks. Just wanted to have children, that lot. By then I could almost use the tree-walking technique. Hang in there, me…

By July I had mastered it. I whooped in joy at the top of that roof, knowing nobody would hear me anyways. I got back to Hito with a grand smile on my face. But for my pro, Amegakure suffered a huge con.

Apparently, missing-nin from Iwagakure found some kids straying a little too far from the city limits. The report/rumor said that the ninja were radiating chakra as a shield, so that was why I assumed Pain was slow on the uptake. Must've been the missing-ninja from the Barrier Unit. They meant no harm to us, only needing to cross Amegakure to reach Konohagakure. Some sort of revenge, the witnesses heard them scream when our ninja attacked, defending us. The ten children were caught in the cross-fire of the jutsu assault. There were no survivors. Not only had we lost two well-abled chunin and jounin, but ten innocent children. Ninja-nee-chan was gone, now only a memory in our minds.

Funny thing about death was that over the years, you forget little bits about that person till you don't even remember their name or face. Only a forgotten memory.

It rained harder. And longer.

Pain was going to make sure he could detect people even with their chakra up. He was practicing. That meant there was going to be an unexplainably small person walking up walls. Doing ninja stuff.

The next day, the cook gave us more food than necessary since ten people were gone. I stayed silent, eating the unflavored porridge, lunch rice, and dinner salad. There was no need to go outside; we were in mourning. The night was eerie and unnaturally quiet. It stayed that way for about a week. Then things went back to its usual lazy drawl. People recovered quickly and went about, minding their own business.

It was all over before anybody knew it. Even I had been caught in that crossfire.

And then summer left us, quick as that. Each and every morning I awoke with sudden urgency. To do something. Change something. Don't just be a useless filler. But by breakfast the thought was smashed down like a fly. There was a difference between caution and paranoia.

I had been careful to avoid major stuff. I wasn't God. This wasn't my world. I couldn't chose which and what. So laziness stuffed all insecure thoughts out. Being lazy, in my definition, spelled out healthy. The opposite of a raving mad insomnist.

…No offense Gaara.

By autumn, I could walk on water and jump long distances. Nothing remarkable came up during training. Besides maybe my reserves were growing? I could test the difference of my stamina between the weeks. Comparing myself to Hito's, my chakra reserves were the size of a tween civilian. Not bad. Not bad indeed.

The exercise with the jumping long distances powered by chakra was kind of hard to find the ideal location. Kids were allowed on the roof when supervised by an adult, so I couldn't be jumping near there. But the building in which Hito was located was smack dab the center of Amegakure, so I had to jump around the northern part, where nobody could see me but the birds. And Pain, of course. Might've caught a glance of some paper butterflies to the east, but I couldn't concentrate on that when sky-high in the air, trying to find a good landing spot on the nearest roof.

Another kid got adopted in October. And Jirobo made it to be ninja. Thirty percent of his money went to Hito's funds for housing, feeding, and clothing him. Oh, right!

Since the cold weather was coming up, orphanage charity from everywhere piled.

The caretaker passed me an ugly maroon hoodie with the strings missing. It was several sizes too large. But it was warm and comfortable, so I got over the ugliness and loved it as soon as I put it on. At least it wasn't several sizes too small, I thought, glancing at poor Ameno.

But when night came in November, you could hear everyone's teeth chatter. I stayed nice and warm.

But I looked at the tall, cold brunette the next morning, my guilt gave in and we ended up trading jackets.

Ameno wore the hoodie with sudden warmth, even though it was still pretty loose. I hugged the sweater close. It fit my body well and I could move freely in it. Good for ninja training.

And the color was quite nice…

That month disappeared in a flash, bringing December. Sadly, it didn't snow. Just rained harder and brewed more storms. Whoa, Amegakure definitely deserved the name. But over in this village, it rained like no tomorrow. Like the sub-tropics. The other villages in the Land of Rain only sprinkled with a fine shade of cool mist. Northern style. Then again, the only other villages besides Ame were located in the north.

Christmas came along, and people celebrated. The cooks made something more edible to eat, however small the portion, and there were no chores for the day. Including the staff, there were about fifty people constantly in Hito's. There was no schooling to be done that day, so free-time was longer.

On Christmas day, I visited the funeral home with a fistful of hydrangeas I snuck from the library's garden pot. I placed one hydrangea on each tombstone. There were two flowers left when I finished, so I placed them on the sill of the only window.

"Paying your respects, are you?" I jumped in surprise. An elderly man who looked almost looked like Dumbledore, but shorter with a straight nose said. In his mouth was a smoking pipe, the kind that you see ancient Chinese men use when meditating. He wore a dark blue kimono with traditional socks and sandals.

"Uh… Y-yes sir." This was awkward.

The elder nodded and hobbled in the room. He should get a cane. When it looked like he was going to fall, I caught him and steadied the man.

"Thank you, m' boy." Huh? Oh, right. It's hard to tell the difference between genders of the young. Especially if one has a pixie-cut. And bangs to frame the girlish structure of the face.

"You're welcome sir." The elder reached into his kimono and drew a single flower. Yellow Tulip. Happy and cheer. He laid it down on a tombstone – "My dearest wife, I tell you" – and prayed. I joined him. I helped him hobble down the stairs, since this was on the second floor of a moderate height building. Hardly could be classified as a skyscraper.

I walked him to his humble apartment home. He thanked me and gave me a small box for my services to the elderly. I told him it was no problem, but he chuckled and closed the door.

On the way to Hito, I opened the box in an alleyway, so the gift inside wouldn't catch water.

It was an eyepatch. A black leather one with two strings on both sides, so that they would wrap around under and above the eye. Sort of like a pirate, but more similar to another anime/manga from the first life. _Black Butler_. Looked like Ciel Phantomhive's.

I muttered something under my breath. Strange old geezer.

But then again, I did look suspiciously like Ciel. Blueish eyes. Black hair. Holding an eyepatch. Duh. Though he was more pretty and elegant than I. I snickered.

* * *

-o-

* * *

I considered that old man's present an early birthday gift. Christmas was only about two weeks away from January seventh. Well, actually a week and six days, if you do the math.

And my fifth birthday came and went. I was officially old enough to graduate from an academy. But 'oh wait! Ame doesn't have an academy!' because nobody could afford proper ninja school supplies. Nobody could. It took half an idiot to know why.

And, as predicted, Angel-sama swung by a week after my birthday. She made the same boring speech and said exactly when the new test was, yatta, yatta, yatta. So I had a month to prepare for the Test. Again. I was most certain that I would succeed in the chakra half, but I had to admit, I was a little worried about the running. What could I do to cheat?

* * *

-o-

* * *

The next few days were boring. Motivated little brats came in with puffy faces. Within a week, about two more found their chakra. By the two week point, a fourth of them could create very dim glows with their hands. By the time the month was up, I had found my answer.

Yesterday, I was volunteering help with the elderly. Like Obito. It was… kind of nice to know how such little compassion could help. No wonder he came in late, helping people. Hopefully I wouldn't make up ludicrous lies. Trying to Kakashi ninja life wouldn't do. And when this old granny – Umeko-baa-chan – needed help with her groceries, I pumped chakra into my arms since the bags weighed at least ten tons. And that was how I influenced my muscles for strength. Afterwards, I tried with my legs, and they ran faster than ever.

That was how to BS your physics exams.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Ready!"

I took in a breath.

"Set!"

Chakra pumped into my legs, the blue visibility close to zero.

"GO!"

Fast, fast, fast, I was. Zoomed first place. Major, major adrenaline rush. I cut the flow on my tenkutsu points, letting it flow naturally instead. The caffeine-like rush induced major adrenaline. I couldn't see clearly. Spots, spots, spots were everywhere. My legs were numb. Too much chakra there from before.

Everything was fizzy.

I couldn't, hear, think, breathe, or smell. Too much fizzed in my throat.

 _Couldn't breathe. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't breathe._

And suddenly… I could. I looked up.

Angel-sama had placed a chakra infused tap on my shoulder. The new, sudden, foreign energy disrupted the panic overload.

"That, kids, is what happens when you place too much chakra in one place, or move it to another too quickly."

Everyone was staring. Hard. Mouths agape. My knees buckled, and I saw no more.

* * *

-o-

* * *

Light streamed out of the windows. I had awoken just in time to see the clouds part. The sun was… bright. Strange. Unknown. First time seeing the sun since the rebirth. Huh.

I was light-headed and airy. I blinked once, twice, thrice.

"You are awake." Stated a gruff voice. I turned my head. A middle-aged man with no hair said. His walnut skin was shiny under the light. He had no eyebrows, eyelashes, or scalp hair. Nor a mustaches nor beard. I wondered if he had hair on his…

"My name is Daichi. I'm a medic. Once the scans are over, you can head back from wherever you came from. Can't believe Leader-sama and Angel-sama made me not charge anybody over twelve…" He grumbled, placing his unburnt cigar in a hidden pocket somewhere in that cloak. It was black with red clou…

What.

Daichi was wearing an Akatsuki cloak. Oh.

It took a while fully comprehend everything. By that time, he was halfway done with his Diagnostic jutsu.

He had to be Kakazu's partner. Then killed him for the sake of killing. Until he met Hidan.

"Hmm." He grunted. He stopped the jutsu. "You're good to go. But I have questions for you."

I sat up in the hospital cot.

"Number one, don't ever place all your chakra on one place of the body. Number two, don't move the energies together too fast. It causes bad side-effects. Like now. Number three: can you tell me what's up with your right eye?"

Huh? What's up with my eye?

"From my scans, something's wonky with that eye. The chakra coils have secondary branches and veins leading to the cornea and iris roots. If you got nothing, then it'll pass as some genetic mutation, or you had a bad accident as a baby."

I tried to speak, but my voice rasped. I winced. Sending all that chakra back to the head wasn't a good idea. The throat was the gate. Instead, I shook my head, mouthing "nothing".

"Alright, then. You're good to go." I nodded, and slid out of the cot. My muddy clothes from the race were still on. But they were drier and cleaner, somehow. A jutsu of sorts?

The hospital was the fifth tallest building. Half a block away from the third tallest building. Hito wasn't all that compromised of that. The orphanage took up about a thirtieth, the school took up a thirtieth, apartment rooms took up half, and the rest was town hall for civilian members.

I walked, letting my chakra rest. But the downside of being a recovering patient was that I wasn't waterproof no more.

Ameno and Sen greeted me when I entered. The bathroom was free, so I changed into my other spare clothes.

"Who won?" I rasped.

The two girls winced.

"Um… about three boys and one girl. Yurichi, Tama, Kyo, and Jun. All older kids." I nodded, accepting it. So I failed. Again.

Ameno and Sen didn't bring up the hospitalization. They were good brats.

The winter soon bloomed into summer. As Gai said, "The springtime of youth!"

Poor Tenten and Neji. And company.

When summer came, I had mastered the whole 'putting chakra into muscles' thing. The blue glow was invisible, and my reserves had grown tremendously from my yin and yang exercises. Gin became a genin and tackled with money-making. So did Kirimi and Haru. Only Ameno and Sen were left, since Kasumi had been adopted. Hito's funds were healing. Good thing. That meant more 'not-as-ash-flavored' food. The morning porridge now came in with a little pinch of salt. Yum.

The probation on expending my chakra had finished weeks ago, so I was free to use it. Apparently, or so I learned from Ameno and Sen, the selected had free access to the ninja library. They weren't allowed to delve the deeper sections, where the genin, chunin, and jounin sections were located. But they were allowed reading basic kata forms, E-rank Ninjutsu, and how to dispel basic genjutsu. Levels for academy students, if they were to ever have an academy. I nodded, a little motivated towards succeeding the test.

Summer passed as quickly as it had come, and autumn was upon Ame. In the training fields, there were a lot of ponds, puddles, and rivers from the cratered ground and rainwater. I could tap dance on the water by then. My jumping distance increased tenfold as my reserves and control grew and strengthened. How much chakra did I have? The size of a young, freshly made genin. Who, graduated pretty early. There was no time for physical training; chakra training was strenuous as it was. And it had good results. But I did suppose that my results would be better if my body was ship-shape. Sometimes, if I wanted a break from the ninja stuff, I would help the elderly cross the streets (there were no cars, but we did have pavement for foot traffic and the occasional merchant selling produce and toys) or carry their bags home. I was beginning to wonder when I'd lie, saying "You see, there was a spider in the bathroom so I had to wait to change until it finally crawled away."

Or Kakashi's infamous one. "Oh, I'm sorry about being late. You see, I got lost on the road of life."

Maybe I could mope around and meet up with someone four hours late. But why would I mope? No, definitely sleep in instead.

The chakra stuff started to get boring by winter. I did the same exercises every day honestly. But there wasn't any challenge to set myself up against, so repeating the same thing over and over again was not fun. At all. I needed something new to work on. Even my laziness streak could diminish when antsy. Like Shikamaru in the middle of a battle. He fought; they died. End of story.

For Christmas, the elders of the village each awarded me with little knick-knacks. Like that eye-patch from last year. Oh, wow. That was last year?

Most of it was candy. Ameno and Sen got two chocolates each for being good little children. I saved the rest under a floorboard under my bottom bunk.

The non-edible gifts were books. The elders had such poor eyesight, so they stopped reading altogether. So all the books lying around their homes were given to me. One just happened to be a book on the five elements. There were five jutsu, all D-rank, with essays and history surrounding each one. Fate, I told myself. It was fate. Neji had something going on there.

* * *

-o-

* * *

It was free time, and I wandered to my training field/alley. The funny thing about it was that this alley was the same alley Jiraiya walked into to find Angel-sama. Konan. And then the six paths of pain. And then it went "BOOM!"

Leaning on the side of a wall so the roof overhead protected the paper from rain, I cracked the book open. It was the Holy Grail, I tell you. I could practically hear the angels singing and the sky lifting.

The first page was the copyright. The next was the title page. Then the table of contents. I flipped to the first element. Fire.

" _Fire is a destructive element when untamed. Many fire release users wear gloves…_ " I read out loud to myself. That thing was magic, I tell you. When I finished that section, I skipped the jutsu training and onto wind. Then lightning. Then earth. Then water.

That was the cycle.

Fire beats wind. Wind beats lightning. Lightning beats earth. Earth beats water. Water beats fire.

And so forth the circle again.

I couldn't really train for the elemental jutsu since I had no idea what my element was. And had no idea where to buy the chakra paper. By the way, how _did_ you manipulate nature, anyways?


	3. Little Hito Drabbles

**By Falling Leaves and Raining Sky**

 **Every theory, I figured, came with a good cause and effect. Just one step down and the final piece was already snatched. So which was the more preferable way to be done with it? As if my extra life was the unknown x, then I'd be a bitter loser who couldn't turn the tables. OC-Insert.**

 **A/N:**

 **This is going really fast. It's sort of my goal to make a fanfic at least 20k. Or complete one. And this one is the closest and the third to most motivated, so yeah… I'm on the rough draft of the edited 1st chapter of 'It's Iruka's fault'. So, don't worry. I'm on it.**

 **…**

 **Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns all. I own the OC-Insert and the plot. This is purely an entertainment fic.**

 **…**

* * *

I kid you not, but for the first part of the test, I won. By _fifteen friggin seconds_. That's a whole lot, damn.

Following Angel-sama's advice, I channeled my chakra into my legs, but left enough in my other coils. The brightness was zero. The chakra test was easy. Just had to make some body part glow bright blue and _BAM!_ – "The job's a game!"

AKA, quote Mary Poppins. But the scenes from that movie was really fuzzy. You'd figure that after six years, something would get forgotten. Sadly, I forgot what kind of ramen Naruto enjoyed best. Miso? Shio? Shrimp? And other unimportant filler episodes and chapters.

As predicted, my name was on the list of 'Who-should-make-ninja'. If not, then someone had to be pulling my leg. That would be like failing the rookie of the year. Twice.

You wouldn't think so. You'd know so.

I was the youngest person to win that year (Sen being the youngest at age five before), so I had all bragging rights. Except I didn't expend on that. Being a child and acting like a child were two completely opposite factors in the equation of ninja life. Take young Itachi, for instance. He had adult brains. But then take Obito or Naruto. Teenagers, but had no dignity in their manly pride. Children, they were.

The five of us who finished the task were led away to the ninja library. Angel-sama told us to write our names down on the entrance list, but only for the pre-stuff. We had access to one whole shelf of knowledge. Then she lectured us about ninja dangers. And to revere Kami-sama. Pain. Nagato.

"Kami-sama is the god who made the new Amegakure. He rid us of the cruel past leader to awaken a new era. He is our god." She said.

The boy next to me gasped in awe. "He must be so cool, then!"

Angel-sama smiled a thin smile. "That is correct."

I frowned. "Then how come we never see him?"

Angel-sama smiled, her eyes narrowing. "Kami-sama is busy with important matters." And she said no more. Must be a problem going out in the open with the Rinnegan.

We brats arrived back at Hito later, having toured all the training grounds. All that walking exhausted me. I slept well.

* * *

-o-

* * *

Approval for ninja life had its perks. Number one, the library.

The middle aged genin overlooking the area for unqualified people at the wrong places, also known as the librarian, nodded me towards the section I was allowed to read. There was a skip in my step. The shelf of the basics wasn't like the five element jutsu book hidden under the loose floorboard. It was waaaay easier and basic. I borrowed a book on Taijutsu, hand seals, and different chakra control exercises. Roughly half the shelf was empty, so I automatically assumed that the other orphans took them. The librarian replied in a low drawl, "Return the books in two weeks."

That was an awfully short time. But they didn't have a Dewy system or "holds", so I guess there was no way for others to check out the same book if they wanted to.

* * *

-o-

* * *

In my training field, I picked up a small, nearly weightless strip of cardboard from the stripped orange juice carton. With a chakra string. My eyes, or the right eye in particular, had especially good sight. So it was a little easier than I suspected to multitask. The Puppet Corps in Sunagakure had to be so darn good. And Sasori of the Red Sands was a living legend. Controlling a hundred puppets at the same time? Pshaw, he was a _master_. Too bad his greatest jutsu ended up taking his life into the depths of insane immortality. Hmm. wondered if I'd meet any of the Akatsuki members in Ame. Surprise, surprise! I could control, let's say, four strings before confusing that one and this one. I needed to learn this. Chakra strings came in handy. Tenten made it possible to make ninja with only that skill of weaponry because of this. Then again, she was twelve. Twice as old as me. Literally.

(Since she graduated a month after turning twelve, and I promoted into this stage a month after my sixth birthday. I did the math.)

But the day count was off by a few days.

The easiest hand seals were the dog seal, boar seal, monkey seal, and snake seal. Mostly the dog seal. I mean, all you had to do was place on hand over a fist.

But even the easiest seal was confusing, since I was left handed, so my body wanted the dominate hand to be the one to make the fist shape. And so on.

The hardest basic seal out of the twelve zodiac set had to be rather the rooster or the rabbit. The rooster because the fingers all folded differently and were smushed together. The rabbit because the finger gun always slipped and jammed into different fingers. Besides the pinky and ring finger. Of course.

Finger dexterity and hand-eye coordination was practiced by playing hand games with Ameno and Sen. They probably found out the reason when I proposed it. They were smart brats.

The popular candies here were chocolates and lollipops. I had exactly that in my hidden stash. Once a day, I ate one. Conserving 'oh beautiful' candy was a plus. Beat the food the cooks managed to slime up thrice a day by a thousand fold.

Ameno and Sen graduated. They were ten and seven respectively. We promised to form an official team once I became ninja. Preferably this year or next year. The problem was finding a Jounin-sensei to teach us. There weren't a whole lot of options in Ame. I think Angel-sama gave us the forms to sign, if she thought we were ready for the chunin exams. In order to become a genin, you had to visit the registration office, where the missions were handed out (by two ex-chunin who quit ninja life) and give them a show of power. If they approved, they gave you a small choice between hitae-ate styles, then gave you paperwork to fill out. Return it by the end of the day and you're a genin. Easy as pie. Just like that. I did suppose that not having an academy was better; it meant no extra school work. But the same could be said for the other way around, vice-versa. If you were the stereotypical geeky nerd. Melodramatics.

I was pretty stubborn sometimes, even if laziness was my thing. So there was a nagging sensation telling me to master at least one jutsu before graduating. I had no qualms. After all, nobody wanted to teach an incapable genin. And my young age wouldn't help that much.

After memorizing all the basic taijutsu kata, hand seals, and mastering the basics of chakra strings, I returned the books the day before it was due. The librarian grumbled, then shuffled the books to their general location from before. Wow, people needed to learn the Dewy system. I got another book on the three most basic ninjutsu. Henge no jutsu, the art of transformation; Bunshin no jutsu, the art of doppelgangers (clones); and Kawarimi no jutsu, the art of the replacement technique.

Of course, if you've mastered the jutsu, you could shorten it down to 'Henge'/'Bunshin', or not say the name at all.

All of the basic stuff was super important. And good techniques to know. What to choose?

Nah, I'll think about that stuff later. Cue to within the next few hours.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Henge no jutsu!" Yup, you got it. I chose the Henge. You didn't need great chakra control for it, meaning it was easier to master. And really, all your imagination did the work.

Staring right back at me in the bathroom mirror was the transformed me. Who did I transform into?

The deva path of pain, also known as Yahiko's body.

The hair was most likely standing too upright and he was tanner than usual, but my memory wasn't the best in the world. It was a miracle that I remembered his personality and basic looks. Six years was an awful long time.

Knock, knock. "Get out of the bathroom already! You've been in there for an hour! I need to go!" Shouted a muffled voice.

Oops. That long? I dispelled Yahiko and unlocked the door. An older girl glared and shoved me out. Pushy. But I couldn't say much, since I did stay there when people deserved all rights to use the toilet or whatever.

"You sick?" Ameno asked.

I shook my head, plopping on my bunk.

"Then what?" She said.

"Jutsu training."

"What kind of jutsu training needs you to be stuck in the bathroom for an hour?"

"No comment."

Sen huffed at my vague answer, obviously eavesdropping from her bed, working on homework. I finished mine at school, during break. I don't think Ameno has done hers yet. Oh well. That's not my business.

Ameno was undeterred. "Cool. I don't know any jutsu 'sides this new technique I'm working on. It's called 'Scorpion Hands'. I gather chakra to my arms and create scorpion hands. It's kinda sharp."

She was hinting for me to spill, since she told me her own jutsu. I owed her a favor for the new knowledge.

"I'll tell you later."

The tall brunette huffed.

* * *

-o-

* * *

Indeed, I told her later. Precisely two months later, when I was able to perfect the Henge. An awful long time to hold something. Then again, Sasuke held a grudge against Itachi for ten years. But Itachi kind of murdered their family and whatnot…

It went like this:

"Hey." I said.

"Hey." Ameno and Sen said in unison. It was a rainy day today, and it was lunch hour.

"I need to tell you something."

"What's wrong?" Sen asked, her big eyes widening.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing's wrong. But I owe Ameno a favor." Yeah. I called them by their plain names. We were rude, even towards good friends. It was the way Hito rolled.

Said person rolled her eyes. "Oh, you mean from two months ago? Yeah, you do. I don't hand out free information on a whim."

Wow. Her vocabulary was stunning. For an almost eleven year old. "I know I'm kinda late about this-."

"You mean really late?"

"Yeah. I'm really late, but I'll tell you the jutsu."

The two girls leaned in closer.

"Henge no jutsu."

Ameno arched an eyebrow. "You mean I was dead set against you for two months over one of the easiest jutsu of all times? I hate you, you know that?"

"I love you, too."

* * *

-o-

* * *

And now I wanted to learn the other two jutsu. Kawarimi and Bunshin. Stubbornness took over laziness.

By the time Ameno turned eleven, the Kawarimi was mastered (though only with hand seals and practicing with stray broken metal pipes from the courtyard).

The Bunshin needed so little chakra and precise control, it took about three months of trial and error. Naruto could never learn something like this. He had heaps and bounds of chakra, so learning the Bunshin for him was like trying to fill a teaspoon using a swimming pool. For me, it was like using a cup. Not too hard, but not too easy, either.

By that time, Sen turned eight. I had ran out of sweets earlier, so I opted to do her chores for the day on her birthday. August birthdays were special, in my opinion. In my first life, I think August was an important month. But I couldn't remember. I couldn't remember my name, my pets, my face, my family, or anything else. There was no time. Now, I had to live out this second chance that some would kill for. So, with the extra paper smuggled from school, all the important events, timelines, and character data was written down. In English, of course.

So… inside my assortment of jutsu were the Henge, Kawarimi, Bunshin, Chakra Strings, Tree-walk, Water-walk, chakra powered jumping, and insanely good sight in my right eye. Huh. Pretty good, considering my age. Most don't learn that stuff until their tweens. Then again, most people don't happen to fall into another world. Not until the senility takes over. People live on craziness there. _Dear Doctor, yesterday my Parkinson's disease left me stranded in the middle of the Sahara desert!_

* * *

-o-

* * *

I contemplated entering the building.

There was a coin I found, hidden in the cracks of the pavement, on my way here. And now it was being used as the unlucky key to ninja registration.

Heads or tails?

Heads, I wait till I turn seven.

Tails, I enter, and finally get that headband.

I blew on the coin and flipped it.

Heads.

I pocketed the coin in the pocket of my cargo shorts. Then abandoned the building, taking a nice walk.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Great news guys. I'm getting married."

The girls blanched. "Say what?"

"I told you, I'm going to wait for my next birthday. Y'know, for the ninja registration."

Sen sighed in relief.

"Oh, I could've sworn that you said something about marrying. Thank Kami-sama you're not."

"Oh, that's good. The wedding's taking place next year."

"Excuse me?" Ameno coughed.

"I said, I'm going to graduate next year. Are you guys' deaf?"

They both cleaned their ears with their fingers, extracting non-apparent earwax.

"Anyway, the honeymoon takes place the day after my birthday."

Ameno rubbed her ears. "I swear, if you are pulling our legs…"

I raised my hands over my head, showing exasperation. "Whaddya mean, 'pulling your legs?' I just said 'the graduation will take place the day after my birthday!'"

I huffed. "You need to check the medics. Everybody under twelve is free of charge."

That wasn't a lie.

Ameno sighed. "I think we might. Come on Sen. The hospital isn't that far away. We should know Naoki's too lazy to pull any scams."

And off they went.

I smirked. They fell for it.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Ha!" _There Naoki the ninja-maiden went, slaying the rogue ninja from all over the lands. Her trusty steed neighed, and the wind chakra from Naoki-sama's hands blew apart the…_

"Ha…" The breathing regime wasn't working.

All I could produce was a small gust of wind, a choking breathe of smoke, and a burnt hand. Wind, fire, and lightning practice wasn't going so well. It took months to figure out how to work my elements. But by the time I managed a good blow of wind, or a nice spark, my chakra ran dry. Ah, damnit all. Nobody could Naruto this shit with his insane reserves and stamina.

Whelp, training was over. My coils were practically running on a very thin thread of chakra. But I healed quickly. With a night full of sleep, I could find myself in the morning all refreshed and ready to go.

* * *

-o-

* * *

 _And Naoki-sama flies! She dashes into the night with her signature move, the epic S-ranked jutsu! Her hair comes undone from the elegant pins, flying rapidly in the wind. Her battle cry frenzies up the…_

"Yahoo! I did it~!"

I shouted in triumph. Why? Because I was starting to sound like an Aburame and because the D-ranked fire ninjutsu was finished. Fire Release: Four Leafed Clover. You gathered heat from the center of your palm, then release it into four different streams of fire, all aimed at the target. It was of the D-rank since it required so little chakra and control. But it wasn't considered of a lower level due to the offensive attack and the frustration required to manipulate your chakra nature. It was harder for me, since I had so. Many. Natures. Holy friggin meatball sauce.

I glanced at the soggy book on the ground. Now, for the other two…"

* * *

-o-

* * *

"I am disturbed."

Ameno cracked open an eye. "Why?"

"Well, you see, there's a little hole in the wall that divides the male and female bathing spots. And when I peeked through-."

"Wait, you're a pervert?"

"No! Let me finish. So, when I peeked through, there was an eyeball staring right back at me!"

Sen gasped. "Who do you think that was?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. But the color was a dull green."

The brunette cracked her knuckles, killing intent leaking unintentionally towards everyone at the baths. "I'm gonna kill Haru…"

…

Meanwhile, Haru, who was away on a C-rank mission escorting a merchant to the Land of Rivers shuddered.

Jirobo sat down next to him, and said: "Hey. What's up?"

Haru replied. "I dunno, man. But I have a feeling that someone wants to kill me..."

He shuddered again.

…

Prank complete. Haha. That was what you get for cutting me in line for breakfast. Nobody told off Naoki Hino without some form of torture.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Yo." Me.

"Sup." Ameno.

"Hi!" Sen.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Wind Release: Sky Drop!"

I mastered it.

It was a D-rank ninjutsu that let you manipulate the temperature for about ten seconds. The book stated that it was mainly used as a torture method to get freezing or burning wimps to spill the beans. Pissing themselves while at it, too. But the hand seals were long and complicated, so no one but T&I employees used it. They had time. But fielders didn't.

* * *

-o-

* * *

August passed.

* * *

-o-

* * *

Lightning Release: Shockwave.

Again, D-rank. Like all the other jutsu in its series. It basically created a shockwave with hand contact. Two hand seals.

* * *

-o-

* * *

September was… full of surprises.

As in water ninjutsu came in next.

Wow. Stunning. Even I was amazed that I had an affinity for four natures.

By the end of the month, I completed Water Release: Lizard Tongue. Five hand seals. Basically, you summoned the moisture from your mouth and mix it with chakra to spit out a long spear tongue of water. Only had one shot, and could slice metal. The poor, poor training pole.

Then October came. On the tenth, I scratched my chin, wondering how old Naruto was. Certainly he had been born by now – the Yellow Flash was told to be dead. And that was years ago.

* * *

-o-

* * *

But then, two months overdue, came the rumors.

And so that was when I was born!

The long overdue rumors of the famed Uchiha clan…

Massacred.

By one of their own kin. Itachi Uchiha. He had barely been twelve years old. Considering that June birthday, it was almost like sending an eleven year old on the rampage.

A budding genius with the Mangekyo Sharingan and an Anbu Captain. Itachi deserved his grooves.

Sasuke could never compare. I mean, rookie of the year? That was comparing the cricket to the dinosaur. Rawr.

And thus forth Sasuke was forever haunted by the will of Danzo. Pain had even been changed by him. The only good thing Sasuke had ever done in Shippuden was killing Danzo. And loyal subordinatestm. Other than that, it was a no go.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Heard the news?"

"Yeah." Ameno replied. She made a face.

"And to think he's my age…"

"I know. Prodigies end up koo-koo one way or another." I shook my head mournfully.

Sen chimed in. "Well, at least he left one survivor."

I frowned. "Whose gonna grow up to be a revenge-induced trauma patient, desperately in need of sleep."

"Right…"

"Yeah."

We talked no more, pitying the poor boy who was our age.

* * *

-o-

* * *

October was a blur. And November. And December. When January came, I had to suffer a whole week of waiting before graduating.

Three kids died.

Kumogakure was detouring into Ame to reach Konoha in hopes of weakening the village even further. Another chunin and jounin passed away in the crossfire of attacks. But the attack on Konoha wasn't successful, in the end.

Kirimi became a genin, along with two other faceless, nameless orphans. Hito now had sufficiently enough money to buy better food. And the clothing drive passed by.

For the newest year as a wannabe genin, I had new clothes. They literally were brand new. The clothing drive seemed to be into buying stuff now.

Dark blue cargo pants/shorts, meant for men, but nobody cared. And it was flexible to move in. And a loose white t-shirt. With irony and deadpan humor, I realized that these were the same colors Sasuke will wear as a rookie genin. I wasn't going to mention any similarities with his… (Shudder) gay, drag costume (you know what I'm talking about).

Once I had enough money, I would buy all that mesh armor and ninja sandals.

I think Ame had a different version of the standard ninja shoes. The toes were covered and the heels were covered. The material was thicker and slightly waterproof. The shoe itself had thicker padding for the rocky ground. The colors came in darker. There wasn't much care for bright things in the dreary Ame. I still kept that jacket, though. But I was going to have to hand it down to the younger kids soon enough. My, what a growing girl I was!

Mesh armor, to say, were thick strings of wire situated together to make clothing. To avoid harming oneself with grated skin, the armor came in a special fabric. Thankfully. Looking like a sliced vegetable wasn't the latest nor recommended fashion of the year. Or millennia.

On the third day (January third), two recruits came in. They were twin boys whose parents couldn't afford having children anymore. Really, that was the best case scenario. At least you could visit them during free hours. The worst case scenario was your daddy/mommy died in the latest war and you were there to witness their deaths.

That reminded me… I should visit the registration office. Not only did those ex-chunin graduate kids, but they had documents on everyone in Ame. So if I asked nicely enough, maybe I could borrow it to find my parents?

And off I went.

The registration office makes up the majority of the sixth floor. I had to climb the stairs, since the elevators were out of order. It wasn't that bad, considering how much chakra I pumped in there. But I was seriously out of shape. How come the flights had so many steps? Ugh…

Only one person was on the job. The other person had to be sleeping, to take the night shift. Missions ended at irregular times. That person was half-asleep, so it was easy to bribe the documents away. He mumbled to go sit and read in a chair somewhere, then landed face first in his paperwork. How good was the pay, if someone still kept a job like that?

After two hours, I managed to sort the papers. In my hands were the documents of the Hino family. The rest of Ame was stacked in a high pile on the coffee table.

Now… There were two papers in my hands.

Mom. Dad.

This wasn't the heartwarming experience in books. It was just me, looking up strangers who I barely knew. They just happened to be my long-lost parents. And I flipped the first paper over.

 _Hotaru Hino (formerly Takahiro)_

Now the other.

 _Nagisa Hino_

Mom. Dad.

Mom had black hair and Dad had blueish green eyes. That was where my looks came from. But other than the basics, there was nothing. No family, no pets, no ninja registration number, no hitae-ate, no nothing. No recorded children.

But Mom mysteriously died before I was born. Not possible. I was here, flesh and blood, and dreams and soul. Did she fake her death, or were the documents wrong? But that meant Dad didn't even know she had a child. He didn't even know that I was alive.

I promptly returned the papers. "Thank you for your time." And fled.

There was no emotion in my heart, no flurry of excitement of possibly knowing of a living parent. There was me and myself. I was fine living in the orphanage, knowing how soon graduation was. I was to become a ninja within a couple days. I smiled. Now I was back to normal. Lazy, lazy Naoki-chan. She was content with life as it was. So was I.

January fourth was slow. Like me. I liked January fourth. No rush, no hush. Besides the usual anxiety for something happening in three days. Actually, it's technically four days, but whatever. Umeko-baa-chan awarded me with another book, since I was a great help to her. It was a thin book; a guide for Wind Release: Gale Palm. A C-ranked ninjutsu. Whoa, how many elderlies owned their own library of ninja techniques? I decided to start learning once I got that headband. Learning a chunin technique when you weren't even genin was difficult and dangerous. Sasuke had some help from his bastardly father in learning the Fire Release: Grand Fireball jutsu.

* * *

-o-

* * *

 _"Dango, dango, dango, dango, dango, daikazoku._

 _"Dango, dango, dango, dango, dango, daikazoku,"_

 _"Yancha na yaki dango yasashii an dango._

 _"Sukoshi yumemigachi na tsu-."_

"Naoki. Stop singing the Dango song." I shut up. But it was a cute song.

Sen shook her head. "Ameno, I don't think she's really Naoki. Naoki's too lazy to bother with singing."

The other agreed. "Yeah. You're right. She must be an imposter."

I shook my head, denying.

"Yeah! Let's get her!" They cheered, then sauntered in my direction. I sat in bed, reading. There wasn't harm in tagging me. It was no fun to have a couch potato be the 'It' person.

"Aw. You're no fun." Sen frowned.

I sighed. "I'm saving all my energy for promotion. For now, you'll have to deal with lazy Naoki."

The glanced at each other. Some kind of mental connection was going on.

"So…" Sen began.

Ameno finished. "You're gonna play with us once you graduate?"

They both flicked the headbands on their foreheads with sharp fingernails. They needed to clip them. I bit mine. It was a bad habit, I know, but at least my nails weren't long. And considering, where was I to wear my ninja protractor? Forehead? Neck? Arm? Waist? Leg? Hair? Haha. Leg hair. That wouldn't work.

I waved my arm, shooing them off. "Eh. Sure, whatever. Wait till the day comes, at least."

January fifth. Come on, just two more days until I turned seven years old. Meaning, if I was part of the rookie nine (rookie ten), then I'd be the youngest. Tenten had probably been the youngest in her year. March birthday, hello?

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Hey, Naoki."

"Yeah?"

"Where's Haru? We've been looking all over Hito for him."

"Oh. He left on a mission yesterday."

"Damn it. When do you think he'll be back?"

"Next week?" That was true. Sort of. He actually left two months ago, and was supposed to come back last week, but due to a broken leg, they would come back next week. In the future. But Ameno didn't know that. She was still mad at him for peeking into the girls' baths. Supposedly. Really, I saw a brown eye, but everybody has brown eyes. So I improvised. And Ameno still held it against him? Man, she sure can hold a grudge. Kids.

"Tch! I'll be waiting for him. I'll pummel him for what that jerk did!"

...Oops. Sorry Haru. Didn't mean for the prank to go this far. Oh well.

"Eheh... Yeah. That j-jerk deserved it, yeah..."

Chores that day for me were clean the dishes, take out the trash, and floor duty. Along with a dozen others on floor duty. There was a lot of ground to cover. And everyone only had one rag.

 **A/N:**

 **Yo. You see, there was an old lady carrying really heavy bags, so I helped her carry them. She lived an hour away on foot, near the outskirts of the city. When I dropped off her bags, the old lady offered me cake and tea. I was so absorbed in the food, I didn't notice how fast time was flying by! So I rushed home, desperate to finally finish the latest chapter of a fanfiction, but I accidently took a detour! Then I hitchhiked on a family van, but they dropped me off on the wrong neighborhood, since there were two neighborhoods with the same name in my city. So I had to walk home again!**


	4. Happy Birthday To Me

**By Falling Leaves and Raining Sky**

 **Every theory, I figured, came with a good cause and effect. Just one step down and the final piece was already snatched. So which was the more preferable way to be done with it? As if my life the unknown x, then I'd be a bitter loser who could turn the tables. OC-Insert.**

 **…**

 **Disclaimer: Naruto story, characters, and original plot belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

 **A/N:**

 **Yo! How ya'll doin'? This, to me, seems to be all blabber with no real meaning behind. It sounds blurry, so writing advice is greatly appreciative. I barely passed my Language Arts/ English classes, since it's not my first language. This chapter, though, is my favorite because it's the first of all my fics to reach the 20k milestone. Yeah. Let's begin with the chapter, folks.**

 **…**

January sixth. Hang in there, me. One more day till my birthday. And one more day till I signed the genin forms. _Argh…_

"Oh? Naoki? You still alive?" Ameno asked in all seriousness.

I sighed. "This is so troublesome. Why can't the day go any faster?"

Sen giggled with a teasing aura. I shivered. The whole thing was too melodramatic, like something you could find in a manga. Creepy…

The class seemed to last _eons_. And, finally, when the hell of boredom was over, I shuffled out of it. I sighed. "How troublesome…"

Behind me, Ameno chuckled. "How indeed."

I grumbled. "You enjoyed my suffering, didn't you?"

The brunette didn't look a tad guilty.

An orange head popped up. "So… how did the day go? We are in separate classrooms, so I never really know what it's like there."

"All I hear is yelling and loud voices."

"Hn. Yeah, my class is full of the loud guys."

"No kidding."

And it was troublesome to deal with them. To think about it, Sen was the ideal model for a Shojo manga heroine. An air of innocence, fragility, cute hair, big eyes, sparkling teeth. Ameno was the laid back best friend, too cool and tough to deal with wimps (refer to the boys who apparently happen to love girls. Totally notwithstanding due to Shojo manga). And I… probably belonged in a Shonen manga. High school drama and romances weren't my thing. It was better to fight kishins, devil fruit users, and evil wizards. Shikamaru was in a Shonen manga.

* * *

-o-

* * *

I couldn't sleep.

I turned. I couldn't sleep.

I twisted. I couldn't sleep.

I tried sleeping on my chest.

I tried sleeping on my back.

I wasn't tired.

Okay then, try counting sheep.

 _One sheep, two sheep, three sheep, four sheep, five sheep, six sheep…_

* * *

-o-

* * *

I jolted awake. Yay! I fell asleep! Woo-hoo!

I had an automatic internal alarm that always made wake with the sun. But it was winter and the sun rose late. So it was tough to get out of bed.

"Nooo… Let me sleep a bit more…" I clawed the mattress, making an attempt.

"Naoki. Do you really not want to celebrate your birthday? A complimentary gift from your friends, lazy ass."

"Yosh! Let the springtime of youth avail upon any wishing wanderer!" Trademarked from Might Gai and Rock Lee tm, I shouted, pretending to be eccentric. My bed was made, fast, fast. I brushed my teeth, fast, fast. My hair was sort of brushed, fast, fast. My face was washed, fast, fast. My sleep wear was folded aside and my clothes changed, fast, fast.

Meanwhile, two lost kids looked about in the fray. "What the hell happened to Naoki?"

Heh.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Happy birthday."

"Okay."

"Bye."

"See ya."

* * *

-o-

* * *

Birthday present: lollipops.

"Thanks."

"I know you like the panda and bunny shaped ones. So I got them."

"And I got the orange flavored ones!"

"Thanks. I'll get you something cool later."

"For our birthdays?"

I casually brushed my hand. "Sure. Something like that."

* * *

-o-

* * *

 _My name is Naoki Hino and I am seven years old…_

I hesitated at the registration office door. But my resolve was clear and true, so I straightened out my lazy slouch and entered.

"Hi." He said. _So casual!_

"Um… H-Hi." This was harder than I thought it would be.

"Go ahead and do your thing."

"Huh?"

The middle aged man sighed. "I've been seeing a whole lot a' brats round these buildings, contemplating whether to come in or not. Most who do, though, are weak wimps. So show me your power and I'll see what score you get."

And he didn't look up from his papers at all during the whole encounter.

"Right! So, what do you want to see?"

The man sighed again. Rude. Maybe I shouldn't sigh as often? I didn't know what other people thought of me when I did.

"Just give me some chakra tests and taijutsu forms. And at least ONE jutsu. Understand?"

"Yessir."

* * *

-o-

* * *

I walked on the walls of the drab office. He cocked an eyebrow. Chakra tests were done.

I transitioned into other basic kata stances. He frowned.

I showed him the Henge, transforming into a perfect version of him. He rolled his eyes.

"Come on kid. _Everybody_ knows the Henge. Show me something else." His voice wasn't very approving. I didn't like it.

"Very well, sir. It appears that it has come to this."

I sighed, shaking my head.

"Oh? A secret jutsu?"

I nodded mournfully. Truthfully, I had been working on it since day one. And after three years, all the imperfections were perfected. This was my ABSOLUTE best jutsu! And to think _he'd_ be the first one to witness it. What a shame. I cleared my throat.

 _Focus the mind…_

"Sexy jutsu!"

* * *

-o-

* * *

I walked out of the building, flaring an aura of pride. Ameno and Sen grinned. They bumped shoulders with me. "Knew you could do it, Hino."

I grinned back, cheeky.

"So. Then. Where're you gonna wear that?" Ameno glanced down at the hitae-ate in my hands. The cloth was black and had long straps, so it could be worn anywhere. Hmm. That was the question, wasn't it? I had a tendency to trip, so my ankles were out. I had an obsessive need to be symmetrical, so the arms were out, too. That left my hair, forehead, and waist.

I tied the hitae-ate to my waist, answering the question already. No words needed. My inside reasoning and practicality was good enough. Cool.

 _Naoki, I like being a genin._

 _I know, Naoki._

 _Shut up, Naoki._

Inside head debates was a sign of madness. Did this new ninja life finally get to me? Nah. that was the giddiness taking over. It would suck to be stuck in an asylum. Hi, strange white suited guys! We come in pieces!

I was a ninja. A _ninja_. My happiness was palpable and nearly tangible.

"Hey, aren't we the first all-girls team in history?"

"We'd be celebrities!"

"It doesn't work like that, Sen."

And to think, tomorrow, I'd start on D-ranks. Okay, they would be annoying sometimes, but the pay overall was pretty decent. I could save up enough money to buy ninja gear, mesh, and bandages. Maybe even purchase an apartment for when I got older. I was looking at the future with a good start. Ahead, the road would be tough and rocky, but I could see a good outlook for when I became a jounin. Well. I wanted two kids and a husband who was older than me. I would have two housecats and a nice Japanese styled home. There would be exactly seven koi fish in the pond. My husband wouldn't nag and I wouldn't really care less about looks and popularity. Eh.

My goal in life wasn't outstanding or cute. I didn't want to become Hokage (seeing how I enjoyed myself in Ame) or venture the continent. Eh.

"Oi. Oi! Are you even listening?"

Huh? "No."

Sen twitched. "So straightforward and blunt…"

Ameno sighed. Hmm, where was her limit? Staaaaare…

"As I was saying, we've been wondering who our jounin-sensei could be. There aren't a lot of elites like those around, so yeah…"

I blinked. Twice. "First things first, I'm visiting the library. Bye~!" I abruptly switched directions.

"He-Hey! Wait up! I wasn't done talking to you!" And her voice was muffled by Sen, who warned her of not disturbing the peace. I smiled. Those brats were cute. Then I used the Kawarimi, taking place with a broken metal pipe near the library. Why, I'd never walk all the way…

And nobody would mind another stray pipe. They were everywhere.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Hello."

"Hn."

"I'm a genin now. I can access that room."

The person on duty glanced up. Then tossed the clipboard. I fumbled with the toss, but caught it nevertheless.

"You're kinda slow, aren't you?" This guy just had a feeling of making me pissed.

"I'm new."

"A fresh one, eh?"

"Sure." I tossed it back. After righting my name with a pen I so happened to carry. Of course. I wouldn't waste such precious energy and time. He half-heartedly caught it before reassuming his paperwork. Staaaaare…

A vein throbbed. "What do you want?"

"Show me to the genin files."

"Gee, you're pretty bratty. I don't like punks like you."

"Okay."

Another vein throbbed. Staaaaare…

He slammed his pen down. "Down the hall, first door on your right. Now shoo."

"Thanks."

He huffed through his nose. I walked past.

The genin library was small. It wasn't teensy weensy, like the pre-ninja shelf, but only having five shelves was quite pitiful. Where were the great, big, towering walls, mounted with books of knowledge? But it was better than nothing. Optimistic, was I? Apparently, nearly all the jutsu books were taken out. Everything left was the hard, elemental jutsu. But they all seemed of the same general level. Hmm… I couldn't promote to higher rankings if I didn't reach up and beyond. The only high ranking thing I had was the Wind Release: Gale Palm. A chunin level ninjutsu. But I didn't know how to use it. It was meant to be learnt when I became a genin. And here I was. My team needed a jounin-sensei. I was running on loose strings here.

I sighed. "Ah, well, it can't be helped." I grabbed the first random book off a shelf and flipped the pages. Then another. And another. Then another-.

Wait, what?

In my surprise, I pushed the book back to its original place. Once my head cleared, I took it out again. Holy…

What was a chunin level ninjutsu doing here?!

I searched all the books I scavenged. Chunin, chunin, chunin… I clutched them tighter and ran out. The door had a plaque on it. It read _chunin_ section. Oh. Oh dear. I noticed the hallway. I was on the left side. Oh. Across from me was a big, big door that read _genin_. On the _right_ side. Haha.

"There you are. I was looking for ya, brat." I froze. "In the bathroom, were you? I couldn't find you in the genin section. Well, I think I'm coming up with something, so the library's closing for the day.

He took a good look at the books I hugged tight to my chest. My knees trembled. This was the end of me; I knew it. _Then the librarian turned the other direction_!

"Come on. Shoo fly, don't bother me. Scatter." He dragged me along the floor. I was speechless. My mouth was the perfect contortion of an 'O' shape. Before I knew it, my voice was back.

"W-Wait! These books are-."

"Bye!" He locked the double doors.

It was, by now, a natural instinct to activate the rainproof chakra shield. That didn't apply so much as to handheld objects, only clothes and the body, so I stuffed the books under my shirt and started walking.

"Huh."

* * *

-o-

* * *

To say, at least, D-ranks were boring. The money was hard to split into three, so somebody had to get more. I was that person. The two older girls stated that I was the youngest and newest to being a genin, so they'd let me off for a year. Then we'd take turns. It was all decided by a few grunts and assortment of head turning. Mental connections were easy by now.

Our first mission was to repaint one of the buildings. The next day, we took care of the elderly and made sure "they didn't die of boredom just yet". And another was too clean the training fields. Unlike Konoha, or what I remember and wrote down for the intro arc, there was no babysitting. People didn't trust each other. If someone truly had to leave a child home alone, then they'd drop them off at a friend's or something. Amegakure wasn't the safest hidden village. There were pick pockets and thievery and drunken people all around. The whole village was a red light area. I didn't mind, though. No matter how messed up it was, I loved my home with a passion. But it was too troublesome to say so or otherwise.

How much did Pain love his village, I mused, apparently interested.

As a kami-sama, no doubt. As a citizen? Well, world peace (domination?) is a pretty high aim to forward.

Off topic. Change subject.

Hmm. Sen's been out of it lately. Staaaaare…

"Hn?"

Staaaaare…

"Um…"

Staaaaare…

"You're creeping me out, Naoki."

Staaaaare…

"Naoki." Ameno warned. I stared at her. She stared back. I tilted my head in Sen's direction. She got the picture.

We both stared.

Staaaaare…

"What are you doing?"

"Staaaaare… Bleh."

I stuck a tongue out. Sen frowned. "That wasn't very nice…"

Staaaaare…

"What do you want?"

"Spill."

"Huh?"

We stared some more. Sen was saved by the call of curfew.

 _Staaaaare…_

* * *

-o-

* * *

I took a good look at the books I had (illegally?) collected (stolen?).

"History of the Shinobi World."

"Genjutsu Theory."

"Wind Release: Flower Scattering Dance." Oh? That looked interesting. The hand seals were tiger, rabbit, and dragon.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Wind Release: Flower Scattering Dance!" A small vortex of flower petals was at my command. I willed it to move that a way. Then that-.

The jutsu broke. I huffed and panted, rolling onto the concrete ground. Wind Release techniques were always the most chakra consuming. And it was a low B-ranked jutsu, so the best I could do was hold it for three seconds. In my terms, that was good. At the library, the chunin section offered C-rank and low B-ranked jutsu. I think the jounin section offered high B-ranks and A-ranks of all kinds. S-ranks weren't so easy to access you could walk straight into a library. You had to be _apprenticed_ to someone of that caliber for a taste.

I sighed, cutting the flow of chakra in my hands. It returned to normal.

"Whelp. Time to go home." I trudged along the streaming rain rivers. Just where did the water empty out? There were a lot of lakes here, but not in the village. You had to walk for miles to see the nearest one. The streets, yes, were filled with storm drains and sewer lines. But they never overfilled, miraculously.

I kind of ignored the Genjutsu Theory book, since I sucked at it. A random faceless boy asked to practice his on me, and I shrugged. The genjutsu… it was odd. I knew I was in the orphanage, but less well-known parts were hazy and made from memory. I knew all I had to do was disrupt my chakra and say "Kai!" but my chakra felt hazy and susceptible. It was like it didn't want me to break out of it.

The History of the Shinobi World was interesting, but not that much needed. I knew the important, basic stuff, like Hashirama and Hanzo and Madara, but who needed to know the last time a Takigakure ninja was ambushed on the great plain? Ninja were ambushed day in and day out. In wars, of course. It was a relatively peaceful time as of now. Only Ame was still recovering from both the great wars. We were trapped in the middle of the free-for-all zone, being surrounded by the Rock Country, Fire Country, and Lightning Country.

Dinner was something new: onigiri wrapped with nori. We had two each. It was pretty good. I gave one to a passerby on the street, later, since my appetite wasn't up. Though, I probably should have eaten that. Your chakra heals faster and you grow stronger with nutritious food. Though rice probably wasn't the most nutritious. White rice, at that.

Staaaaare…

"Stop looking at me all funny."

"Then spill."

"What?"

"You are uncomfortable about something."

Sen spluttered. Ameno and I shared a smirk. "See? You just proved it."

"So you were just guessing all the time?"

"Pretty much."

Sen rolled her eyes. I bumped shoulders. "What's up?"

The orangette blushed.

I turned my back. "You know what? Never mind." I didn't like dealing with romances. Whoever that girl had a crush on, Ameno was going to kill him anyways.

"N-No! It's not like that!"

I turned my head. "Oh?"

Sen blushed. "N-Never mind."

Ameno and I cocked eyebrows. "Yes? You were saying something."

Sen huffed, and crossed her arms. "Nothing."

Ameno and I shared a look. I muttered "lovey-dovey cowards" under my breath and walked away. Ameno smirked. Sen growled. Cute.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Wind Release: Flower Scattering Dance!"

Seven seconds.

I improved by four whole seconds in a week. Man, I was good. Or bad, depending on how you looked at the situation. But I could feel my reserves growing. By now, I had a lot of chakra, enough to compete for the top spot out of all ninja who became genin at Hito. In my immediate age group. Ninja-nee-san had to be ten years older than me. Surprising that the laziest ninja in Hito also had the most chakra and endurance. So whoever created that wind ninjutsu had to have a whole lot of chakra.

Angel-sama now sent runners to talk in her place. The kids were miffed at how the beautiful lady was replaced by the wrinkled old fart.

You'd figure that a person like her would be busy.

Nobody could 'Naruto' this BS. Shadow clones were a forbidden technique, so Konoha was 'hush-hush' about it. And if someone who could rival him in terms of chakra and stamina, they'd be in the bingo book. Just saying.

(And not at all talking directly to the invisible back of Kisame Hoshigaki.)

Breakfast, now, was rice porridge with nori (seaweed). Lunch was some sort of sandwich. Dinner was onigiri (rice ball). With a variety of rather nori, fake crab, or bean paste. I chose the former most of the time. Fake crab tastes nothing like the real deal. And this bean paste was awfully sour. The money from our missions were helping out Hito a whole lot. The average income for a D-rank was ten thousand yen to two hundred thousand yen. Back in my old world, that would be about twenty dollars to a hundred-fifty dollars. Yeah… People would pay large amounts for anything. Two hundred thousand yen?! That's a whole lot, I tell you.

Mesh armor/clothing costs about twenty thousand yen (forty dollars) per large piece. The smaller articles, like arm protectants and leg bands were about ten thousand yen (twenty dollars).

Bandages were pretty cheap, since it was needed everywhere. Bandages could be used as a fashion statement, too. Since everyone got hurt some way or another, it was too much of a drag to take them off. Eh.

 _"_ _Dango, dango, dango-."_

"Stop singing the dango song."

"What a drag."

Ameno sighed. "Anyway, we have to be looking for a jounin-sensei. And start team exercises."

Sen popped out of the sky. "Meet us at three tomorrow at training grounds nine. Okay? Bye~!"

Ameno nodded. "Hn. Yeah. We don't really know what you can do besides the Henge."

Oh. That's right. I haven't been keeping up with them. But really, do I want them to know? Humans are naturally greedy and sinful people. I was selfish and liked to keep to myself. Neither Sen nor Ameno even knew what my favorite color is. Kind of sad, actually. I was a mystery, wasn't I?

Hmm. What should I tell them? Cross out the elemental jutsu. Maybe just the chakra exercises and the three basic ninjutsu. They'd definitely not get suspicious or anything. Naoki, to them, was too lazy to do any extra effort. Yes, I was lazy. But sometimes I wanted to change that. But then again, putting my life into the canon would only lead to a darker future, wouldn't it? If I was to involve with Konohagakure, then certainly as a nosy diplomat or spy. I was born in Ame and would stay in Ame. If I had been born in Konohagakure, then, maybe, all this would be a different story. But here I was, loving it.

Sigh…

Why couldn't I tell them! I wanted to, but…

What? They'd get mad? They'd get jealous? They'd freak out?

Why was I thinking insecure thoughts?

I didn't usually think like this.

Ah, well, I'd be going to sleep now...

"Good morning!" I yawned, stretching my arms.

They rolled their eyes. "You do realize that it's only three in the afternoon?"

I nodded. "Hn. I know. Like I said, it's _early~_."

Maybe I shouldn't get on my senior's nerves as much. Who knew what devious older brats had up their sleeves?

Sen cleared her voice. "Yosh! I'll start."

Her amber eyes closed with concentration. Sen performed the three basic ninjutsu. And chakra strings, latching all ten of them onto loose pebbles. By then, I found out that the two also knew Rainproof no jutsu. I named the trick myself, since nobody had the liberty of doing otherwise. Nice name, huh? Title says all.

Sen was sensor. Her eyes were abnormally big, and being a child had nothing to do with that. By adding chakra to the base of her retinas, she could see far, far away. Like the abridged version of the Byakugan. I wondered if she was a descendent or something. But she was prone to crying, since a lot of the bullies tended to call her an idiot. So whenever anything looked like that kanji character, she kind of… halted. Being sensitive wasn't bad, but it would prove detrimental to ninja life. Though, unlike the Byakugan, Sen couldn't see underneath ground level and through walls. Just plain sight with mixed up evolution.

Ameno could also perform the three most basic ninjutsu, and was learning the fundamentals of the tree-walk exercise. Of course, like everybody else, she knew the Rainproof no jutsu. And mastered it. It was pure instinct by the time you made genin. Had to be. Since rainy days never lifted. Never. Ever. You had to kill _Pain_ , and _nobody_ just waltzes in on Pain and says "I'm gonna kill ya!"

Jiraiya of the **_Sannin_** , well, _died_. Because of Nagato and Danzo's evil cronies. It's Danzo's fault. Blame everything on Danzo.

And it just naturally rains all the time, at least seven and a half days a week.

Ameno showed us a ninjutsu she had been working on (and was still a project in development).

Scorpion Hands. Ninja jutsu. Summoned chakra to your elbows down, creating scorpion hands. I thought they looked like crab claws. I didn't say nothing. And they solidified, even though the arms underneath were visible. So getting raked or punched by one was _painful_.

My turn. Now what?

"Greetings, ladies and unapparent gentlemen." I did a ninety degree angle, bowing to my two spectators. Audience didn't clap.

I cleared my throat. _Awkward_ …

"I am now at your leisure to perform amazing, fantastical ninja skills for you all today."

"Get over it."

"Okay…"

I 'Henge'-d into someone they didn't know. I kind of knew him. I mean, well, all Narutards fangirled over Itachi Uchiha at some point, right? He was his twenty-one year old sight, sometime in the future. In my past. Seven years ago. He wore the Akatsuki cloak, so I was pretty glad that no members of that organization or people who were affiliated with the Akatsuki stuck around to watch three mischievous little brats train. My two teammates commented on how… interesting my imagination was. Nobody came up with that kind of fashion design without meeting the person or having problems. I think they thought it was the latter. Heh. My attitude was really that odd?

Then came the Bunshin. I made five, since any number lower than that I viewed unlucky.

The last of the three easiest and rarely used (for reasons I still couldn't really comprehend) jutsu was the Kawarimi. I substituted with Ameno, taking her by surprise. She huffed through her nose after losing her balance ("I love you, too."). At least the brunette didn't fall down onto her rear. That would have been embarrassing for her but amusing to the onlookers. And I did worry about my health. Daichi wouldn't be appreciative of my visit. He'd also want to investigate my right eyeball more, if he was a true scientist of medicine. I was fond of my vision, there. It helped me view the physical world with better clarity. Reality and evil dark plans aside. Not that kind of clarity. No seven year old had usurping dreams of nightmares and adult themes. Besides me. Don't ever count the reborn girl. She probably had seen things most people didn't even dare _dream_.

I stood there awhile, gazing into space. Ameno's voice jolted me back.

"Is that it?"

It was now or never.

"Uh."

"'Uh' what?"

We said all kinds of nice things to each other, didn't we?

Rhetorical question. Don't answer.

"Nope!" _Ohgoshholyfrigginmeatballsauceoh!_ It was dared.

"I know one more thing that'll throw ya'll into a pinch." I winked. Inwardly, I was seen raking my eyes out of my corpse. _Aaaggghhh!_

"Water Style: Lizard Tongue!" A fast, thin, sharp stream of water was spit out over the horse hand seal. Good, good job me. Show them that you can utilize elemental jutsu, but only one. And your weakest one so far. Half and half.

I meekly glanced at the two. Their reactions were what I had expected, but on a safer, milder note.

Sen was drooling from her unhinged jaw with wide eyes. Ameno struggled with her eyes, like there was something in it. Or saw something she hadn't expected to see.

They were flabbergasted. Incredulous looks plastered over their faces. I rubbed the back of my head.

"So… How's that for an eye-catcher?" My voice sounded weak. Ah, let them think that I was tired from over exertion. Naturally, little brats weren't expected to have such large reserves for a jutsu.

"Oh. My. Gosh! How could you keep this from us? This is big, real big."

I blinked. Huh?

"I mean, you're that advanced? Gee, even though you have serious issues, your ninja ability is awesome!"

Ow. Ow. Ow. I think my ears were bleeding. But that would be worth it if Sen and Ameno didn't suddenly distrust me for being so far ahead in our studies. We were little kids, of course envy was a huge problem. I wouldn't blame them. I'd probably been slightly envious, no matter my maturity and mental age. It was selfish to think that way. I was a bad, bad girl. Growing up without parents to teach you proper discipline was catching up. No matter maturity, surrounded by brats would help in really becoming one. I should visit Nagisa sometime soon. He needed to know that his family was still intact. Ish.

Alive and well, here!

Or… separate myself? No! Bad Naoki! We discussed (mentally) to never ever abandon friends! Not everyone can turn into a Sasuke and live to tell the tale. Where was the root of all the bad, bad emotions? I didn't doubt like this usually. But I had no double personality or bipolar issues. I brushed it off as a second-life-y thing. Sometimes somber moments of nostalgia did it. Wasn't I the perfect example?

Anyway, mental health aside, it was proposed to have team training fall like this:

"Free time starts two in the afternoon. Then we get called back for dinner around six for an hour. Then until eight-thirty, we run laps."

"Sure. You got a good head on your shoulders, Ameno."

Basically, do whatever genjutsu, ninjutsu, or chakra powered training for four hours. Then eat to regain energy for the second round of taijutsu later. Ameno planned on us being drop dead tired when we finished, so she prepared a thirty minute walk from training grounds nine and Hito, even the walk in the crow's eyes took a little over ten minutes. Cool. Sounded cool to me.

 **...**

 **Yo! How's life? I'm good, thank you for asking. I totally trolled my friends a little while ago with amazing bets that you will always win. Watch it on youtube. Don't own that. So, gotta go with... stuff.**


	5. A C-Rank Mission? Hey, Are You Stupid?

**By Falling Leaves and Raining Sky**

 **Every theory, I figured, came with a good cause and effect. Just one step down and the final piece was already snatched. So which was the more preferable way to be done with it? As if my life was the unknown x, then I'd be the bitter loser who couldn't turn the tables. OC-Insert.**

 **…**

 **Disclaimer: Naruto story belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

 **…**

 **A/N:**

 **I am healthy, complete, alive, and still in one piece. Don't count toenails.**

 **…**

"YOU LITTLE ASSHOLE!"

 _Smack._

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT A (*Insert foul adjective*) JERK LIKE YOU CAN-!"

 _Smack._

 _Smack, smack._

I winced. Even though I completely agreed that Haru should stop being so rude, it was kind of my fault that I told him off. When it wasn't actually him. It was a single brown eye. Not a green one. Eheh…

Haru's voice was meek and tender. Like his crotch he was holding.

"Wha-What d-did I do…?" His manly man voice from puberty was back to cracking like a ten year old.

Ameno didn't explain. She kept flinging colorful words here and there with a temper like an irritated Tsunade. Hmm. I wondered if she would become a medic. Her chakra control was superb. The only reason why the tree-walk exercise was hard for her was because Ameno didn't have enough chakra. Sen also had fantastical control. They could become medics. But there was nobody to teach them. We still couldn't find a jounin-sensei, too.

I watched the one-sided battle between the scared tween and the angry tween on the ceiling, using chakra to stick on the surface. This world defied all laws of gravity.

"Ajisai. I can hear you breathing."

A girl about my age with short purple hair revealed herself. "I didn't know that you could hear so well."

I shrugged, not moving from my position on the ceiling. "My senses are sharp."

"As expected of a ninja, Naoki." Ajisai was a year younger than I, and had already passed the test. But hadn't graduated. Yet. She proved to be able to walk on walls. That being said, her chakra was running at an irregular pace. She couldn't have been doing this for very long.

"Oh, and by the way. You're gonna fall." Ajisai sent me a look that she knew her control was failing, then flipped off next to Haru. His body had been turned to a pulp. In a painful way. Ameno proved to be quite skilled in Taijutsu. Strength wise. And Scorpion Hands no jutsu needed a lot of flexibility and motion, since it was supposed to be used as an offensive hard hitter. The said girl was gone, off to report how Haru committed suicide and failed.

Poor, poor thing.

Never cut Naoki in line ever again, okay?

Hope you've learnt your lesson~!

-o-

I mulled over Ameno's training regime. It was… okay. But I felt that some key factor was missing. During the first part, I practiced the Water Release technique. Thank you, guys. Now my Water Release is my most powerful element. Konoha had something going on there. About teamwork. I work with my team for a month, and work by myself for a year. The latter lost. The former won.

It was a scary thought to how Sasuke would've become even stronger if he lost all that arrogance and vengeance and actually started working with his teammates. And if Jiraiya bothered to teach Naruto something else than a bigger blue ball. Yeah.

The second part was… tough. Even the proposer, Ameno, had a hard time. Whelp. That's to be expected. I didn't cheat and use chakra to power my muscles. Turns out that I was below average in physicals. Huh. You'd figure. For now, we focused on running laps around the training grounds. When (and if) we ever got a jounin-sensei, we'd practice taijutsu along side him/her. The majority were men, though. Overnight, our muscles healed from the rips and tears.

It was March. And by the end of March, I had a few hundred dollars, in my other worldly terms. Because Ameno corrected the schedule, so we had at least one mission a day. We earned about ten dollars each. Of course, thirty percent went to Hito's funds. But still. Several hundred dollars.

I bought many, many rolls of bandages, since they were so cheap. And finally, after spending half a hundred dollars, I finally purchased mesh armor.

Precisely an undershirt (I would say _shirt_ , but mesh always goes _under_ clothes, so, y'know, yeah). It had three-quarter sleeves. I wore it under my baggy white shirt. Plus hitae-ate.

It wasn't uncomfortable, but it wasn't the best material to wear. So I improvised and wore a tank top underneath. That's a lot of layers, but all of the shirts were airy and thin. And Ame wasn't the warmest place to live. The Wind country during the day probably was. But there was little I could do for the mesh clinging to my arms. Adding sleeves to the tank top was overdoing it.

The ninja shops here were scarce. I searched all through the village to find my mesh. There was one single shop dedicated towards weaponry. I bought those weapon holsters and attached them to my leg. Then came the kunai and shuriken. There were a few tanto, bokken, and katana. They were all overpriced. Bad quality, too. Was that some rust…?

Eh. The old man had to make his money somehow, right? Over here, good ninja are the ones with good tools. Bad tools make a bad ninja. Sometime two to three years in the future, Aoi Rokusho is going to defect to Ame. With that super cool sword of lightning or whatever. It belonged to the second Hokage. I think. That darn Aoi is also going to drag this Morino guy into becoming rogue. He was only a genin, at that! Ibiki's little brother. Ototou. I should know about Ibiki. Last week, I purchased the latest edition of the Bingo Book. Ibiki Morino is a B-rank threat. His fighting is average for a chunin, no sweat. But his torture techniques is _legendary_. When I get enough scars to look that intimidating, then maybe I should defect to Konoha for work at the T &I office…Then again, the only work I'd be doing in the T&I building was screaming my lungs out all the secrets of Amegakure.

Sadism can last a _looong_ way.

On that matter, other Bingo Book ninja "YOU SHOULD SERIOUSLY AVOID OR DIE!" (Says it, quoting) I found were so nostalgic. Kakashi of the Sharingan. Zabuza Momochi, one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage, Professor. The Sannin. Itachi Uchiha. And…

SASORI-SAMA!

DEIDARA-SAMA!

Oh my gosh, I can feel my fangirl antics popping out of the sky. But still…

THE ART DUO!

I'm crying pathetic fangirl tears. Maybe I should defect to the Akatsuki, so I can see the awesomest art duo. Even though 'awesomest' is not a word, it's the only word that can sort of fend off the fangirl bugs. _I am a middle aged woman. I am a middle aged woman. I am a middle aged woman._

The mantra broke.

 _I am an Akatsuki fangirl. I am an Akatsuki fangirl. I am an Akatsuki fangirl._

"KYAAAAA~!"

You know what? I am ever SO grateful to the kami-sama above for placing me in Ame.

The fangirl train disbanded. It came to a screeching halt. Because Ajisai returned to intact her evil plans. And nobody wants to hear a fangirl scream. They happen to have very high pitched voices. I happen to have a low, boyish voice. Not an alto, not a soprano. But girly enough to pass for my gender.

"Um… Naoki?"

"Y-Yes?" I was losing my touch here. Get a grip, girl!

"Why did I hear you scream?"

"Because Haru's drag form is burning my eyes."

Ajisai took a good, long look at Haru, who was still unconscious. He twitched. She froze, then clamped both her hands over her face. She ran off into the hall. I rose a brow, then aimed my vision right where Ajisai was formerly investigating.

Come to think about it, didn't she knee him at the crotch? Well, that hit kinda… well… tore his pants. And his bruised balls were peeking out. I stifled the next few colorful words I was going to say and ran out. I am so, so sorry, Haru. You deserve some good in your life just now. I decided to give him the fattest, juiciest, unhealthiest candy tomorrow. I gulped when I saw Ameno drag an adult to the storage room.

"This way, this way! Haru's all hurt!" She sounded sympathetic and worried. I didn't want to be on her bad side.

My wallet "Usa-chan" had a lot of money in the mouth of the bunny. I decided to buy some sweets for myself, too, after seeing that _thing_ I had no liberty to see. Until at least ten years later. Or twenty. Don't want to rush things too fast. When I reached the candy store, the granny waved me in. I was a frequent customer. Huh. You'd figure. Ninja life had its perks; you would just burn all the excess calories away training. That meant the Akimichi clan ate a _lot_. Look at those tummies go _jiggle-jiggle-jiggle_.

Eheh. Don't mind my crass mind. Sugar has its side effects. No offense, Choji. You're as thin as a twig!

…I returned the last purchase.

People learn new things every day! Today, I learned that Usa-chan was getting too fat. And Haru had a less-likely chance of reproducing. But hey! That meant more bed time with his future girlfriend. I was doing him a favor, personally.

Anyway, you see, there's this place on downtown, next to the brothel painted yellow and blue. It's manned by some top notch elites who are kind of snotty looking. But they were honest and loved making money managements. Over there, I traded all my coins for bills. Usa-chan looked all skinny from her speedy quick diet. Good girl. Getting too fat would attract unwanted attention from pick-pockets.

-o-

"What do you mean there's no more missions?" The tall brunette demanded.

The man on charge sighed, rubbing his temples. "All the D-ranks have been taken. You're a little late. Come back tomorrow morning and you'll have some options."

Ameno stood her ground. Fierce, was she?

"Are you sure there's no more missions?"

"Yeah."

"Then what's with that fat stack over there?" She pointed accusingly at the other ranked missions. I face palmed. Was that why she talked with such confidence? It was because of her own stupidity? I thought every nincompoop knew the differently ranked missions! _And why_.

He sighed, rolling his eyes. "That's C-rank."

"We're plenty qualified. Any of us genin could take on a bandit with both our eyes closed!"

…That was the truth. Civilians simply walked too loud. I sometimes thought I could hear the foot traffic blink. Ninja were just that quiet and sneaky. I wasn't even a sensor, if you didn't include my sensitive ears and weird right eye.

He took the first one off the stack. He read out loud the main focus. "C-rank. Escort merchant Yoshiko Ozaki to the Land of Tea and back to gather supplies for her business."

What was it? A tea shop? That would be something to look forward to. Hopefully there'd be Earl Grey. But the packet stated she was a merchant. So… she was going to open up a general store? Along with tea? The only "supplies" you could gather in the Land of Tea were herbal remedies and tea plants. There were a lot of fish products, too, since the country had a big water source a little south of the central village. I was just curious.

"How much?"

"Forty thousand yen." That was close to three hundred twenty dollars.

"Deal." Wait, what? The money's grand and all, but I've only been genin for a few months. Be considerate of your teammate. Then again, I know the most powerful jutsu out of the three of us. Never mind.

"You sure?"

Ameno looked back to Sen and I. Sen nodded while I smiled. "Absolutely."

The middle aged man shrugged. "Okay. Don't get yourself killed. If anybody asks, it's your fault. Got that? Repeat after me. It's your fault."

"It's gonna be our fault." We three chimed in unison. Our chorus was good.

"Alrighty. So, here are your individual packets. It has four copies, so I'm gonna burn the fourth one. No need for falsified info. Inside is the address of Yoshiko Ozaki, so visit her anytime. Preferably by the end of the week, she wrote down. Ozaki-san wants to be safe, so she'll give up the whole thing if her bodyguards don't reach her in time. Bring packs that will last approximately two weeks (there and back, each one week by walking). Don't carry tents, since it's not going to rain anytime soon farther south. And all Ame ninja know Rain country territory by heart, so if you want to rest here, you can sleepwalk into the office. Yoshiko Ozaki wrote down that she will bring one horse to carry her supplies. And that's it."

He tossed us the packets. "Now shoo, free birds. Let your wings take flight and soar the clouds."

Abbreviation: Get the hell out of my office.

We did so, albeit grinning wider than a Cheshire cat. In fact, that's a creepy image. I'm not thinking that ever again. Stop the clip, stop the clip! Who cares? This week, we're going on our very first C-rank! My thoughts betrayed my lazy demeanor. Obviously.

We scurried down the stairs and out into the open sky. It was raining. Duh.

The way back to Hito was cheerful and energetic. I don't remember what Sen chatted about or why Ameno was humming the dango song; her least favorite song (sadly). The road felt increasingly and annoyingly long for such a quick trip, but at the same time, it was over all too soon and there we were, ready for bed.

"Lights out."

And so were we.

-o-

The next morning was slow. Slow-slow. Not lazy slow, the way I liked it. But slower than lazy slow. Unproductive. Boring as hell. Friggin meatball sauce slow. That kind of slow.

Y'know, slow.

Nuff said.

I ate my breakfast at a drone's pace. _Spoon, lift, munch, swallow. Spoon, lift, munch, swallow._

Except there were no incantations like the guide above. (* The fourth just wall broke.*)

Morning chores took place after. I had double time on cleaning the whole hallway, along with Ameno and Jirobo. Since we all could walk on walls, which was why the chaperones assigned us that duty. The ceiling was growing a nice patch of mildew, creating an unbearable smell. Well, it was survivable, but largely preferred to be kept away. And I had quite the nose. My sense of smell was heightened, along with every other sense. So Sen was emotionally sensitive, but I was sense sensitive? Bleh. Let us see who retrieves the shorter straw.

To think about it, the name Jirobo was awfully familiar. He was the big dude who nearly killed Choji during the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. He was one of the Sound Four, the squad of curse mark people who were most loyal to Orochimaru. But just because this Jirobo had brown eyes and orange hair didn't mean that he was _the_ Jirobo. Right? I mean, Jirobo tags Orochimaru around as a bodyguard. And even the Sannin couldn't penetrate Ame without Pain knowing. It took all three of the Sannin put together to even get a scratch on Hanzo. In the end, Hanzo won, allowing the three to thus forth live their lives. And then plot boom happened and Pain defeated Hanzo. So how would Orochimaru invade Pain's territory and live to tell the tale? He needed his two other teammates who were as powerful as him to scratch Hanzo. So how would he even stand a chance against the defeater of that one guy?

Not very well. The best possible answer (in Orochimaru's perspective) was using the Rinnegan power to quickly get rid of him painlessly.

The worst possible scenario (but best scenario for everyone else) would be that he died a tragically slow, painful death. Pain made Orochimaru experience his pain. Puns. Haha.

That is a punny pun. Haha…

That wasn't even funny.

Plus this Jirobo was skinny.

Anyway. Moving on. Unproductive day of chores turns to lunch time.

It was anpan (red bean paste bread). Yum. Like a big dango. I savored the sweet filling and bread. It was tasty.

We had little plastic cups of water. Everybody had their own cup. My cup was baby blue with big fat kanji letters of my name: 直樹.

Naoki, in its separate kanji, meant 'honest tree'. Honestly. That is such a Konoha-ish name. You'd think I was born in Ame. No duh. People lied for meticulous things, here in the smaller nations. Honesty wasn't a sign of ensuing survival. Frankly to speak, the hidden village does not have any nearby trees or undergrowth. Without our rain, this whole area could pass off as a desert. With a bit more oasis' than usual.

Cups aside, I like my cup.

Then lunch ended. We had some more chores to do, then we had to attend school.

-o-

"Aw my gawd. The day finally finished. And to think it's after dinner." One of them complained.

Our packs had been purchased, along with the other necessities to last a good two weeks. I had some amusement in unraveling the ninja wire, then rolling it back up again. It was spring, and the sun will set in a little over an hour. Good timing. We already left a note on our bunks, saying 'away on a mission'.

"I think this is the door." Sen stated her thoughts. We knocked on it. Immediately, the light that crept underneath the door had been flicked off. Worrywart. Or had troubling experiences. Must be why Ozaki-san would hire ninja on her journey.

Ameno understood the woman's trail of thinking. She nudged me ahead, whispering to say something. Well. I was the youngest and even though Sen had the soprano, my voice was cuter. Then Ozaki-san would know it was her guards.

"Um… Ozaki-san? It's the ninja that you hired. W-We've come to escort you to your destination and back."

The light turned back on. A muffled voice spoke through the thickness of the door. "How do I know you're not some guys impersonating a little girl?"

I considered that. The woman really did want bodyguards on such a harmless mission.

"There's a code at the bottom of our mission packets. It says 'plum trees, blue apples'".

The door opened. A woman greeted us quickly and quietly. She made us come in right after, then closed the door. There were seven locks. Gee. There was a line between paranoia and worry. She was putting a lot more than just toes over it. And to add to that, she opted to raise her shoe carpet a tad over the doorway to block out any light. Hum. Did paranormal activities stage their ways over here?

We were seated at a western styled high table. Like that. Ozaki-san served us some Earl Grey. I devoured mine.

"I'm sorry about before. It's just that there are so many robberies and bad people out near this area, I grew worried."

Paranoid, no doubt.

"It is fine, ma'am." It seemed to me that Ozaki-san finally registered in our looks.

"Oh my! You sure are young ones. Are you sure you can handle a mission like this?"

"Ma'am, we can defeat a bandit with our eyes closed."

"Oh. Okay, then."

The silence ensued.

I cleared my throat. "Thank you for the tea, ma'am. We are ready when you are."

Ozaki-san chuckled. "Don't worry about it, sweety. I've been ready for months."

Oh. Okay, then.

 _Worrywart._

Sen dissipated the tension with an axe. "Then let's go!"

We were off to our very first C-rank!

Ozaki-san was a middle aged woman with braided brown hair and sharp black eyes. She wore a maroon rain jacket and black pants. I noted how practical her clothing was. It wasn't that important, but the walk to the stables was boring. There was nothing else to do other than observe the interesting specimen of "Civilian" in front of me.

The stables were located at the very east end of Ame. It was big and had lots of animals. This was, I mused, where we got our meat. Ozaki-san's horse was living the life with hay at the back corner. The woman did some animal magic with the horse "Kinko", and we were off towards the only gate to exit and enter Ame. The pinto mare was old and fat, but strong still to carry Ozaki-san's packs.

"Registration?" The person on gate duty asked.

We flashed our headbands. Ozaki-san showed an ID card.

"Reason for leaving?"

"Mission: Escort."

"Okay. Bye."

We left.

She offered to share her extra umbrellas, seeing how we were walking in the rain. I was almost tempted to, to save chakra, but the typical C-rank missions didn't require chakra at all. Bandits went down with a punch. And that umbrella was so pretty…

"Oh no! Thank you for offering, though. We ninja own… um… invisible umbrellas. That's why we aren't wet." Seriously, Ameno? That's the best you can come up with?

Ozaki-san bought it. Her eyes glazed with wonder. "Oh. Oh, wow. I've always wondered why only we civilians are the ones to catch colds."

Stupid.

The walk was kept slow for Ozaki-san's sake. By the time night fell, we were half way to the border. The older woman fell asleep on her horse. Ameno wanted to camp out in the Fire country, where we could rest without rain beating down. By about two in the morning, the rain subsided, and we entered the Land of Fire.

"Halt! State your business, Rain-nin!" We stopped walking. I nudged Ozaki-san awake. She opened her eyes blearily.

Ameno, the oldest and most responsible looking, spoke.

"We are here on an errand to gather supplies in the Land of Tea. We need to cut our way through the Fire Country to get there."

"What kind of supplies?" Well. Not war supplies, I'll tell you.

Ozaki-san was wide awake. "Herbs. I'm opening a tea shop. These young ones are making sure I don't get attacked by bandits or thieves."

The border guard bought it. He let us pass. But with warning. "Don't do any funny business and you'll come back in one piece."

"Aye-aye, captain." I said. He didn't get the joke. Sad.

We walked for another hour, then made camp. Ozaki-san was still wide awake.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your sleep."

"No, no. It's fine. I've always wanted to see another ninja from a different country."

Funny thing was, civilians found that cool. Ninja might have, but were too dead to say anything else.

The next day we woke up late. We missed breakfast, so, instead, I hunted a bird for an early lunch. I also plucked the feathers and removed the blood and guts since nobody else had the stomach for it. Maybe I was a sadist. Maybe not. It could be a unique branch of masochism. Heads, tails, you look down and up.

When nobody was looking, I started a fire with my fire release. Nobody had matches…

After the tasty meal cooked by yours truly, we band of four went on walking. We didn't bother to hide our camp site that well, since it would be suspicious in the eyes of the Konoha-nin. It was Sen's responsibility, too, and I wouldn't try blaming a lazy person. Not when I was lazy myself. Ozaki-san found walking too tiring after a few hours and rode her mighty steed. Then came in the assault…

…Of questions…

"Hey, hey, what're your favorite colors?"

Sen didn't have to think. "Pink."

Ameno considered the question. "Blue."

Ozaki-san smiled. "Aw. Those are cute colors! How about you, Naoki-chan?"

I thought for a while. "Grey."

You could feel the tension in the air. No seven year old likes the color grey, issues or no.

The woman forced a smile. "Okay, then. How about your favorite food?"

"Chocolate."

"Same."

"Dango." I blurted out. That was a reasonable answer, yes? Not as cute as chocolate, but childish enough.

Ozaki-san looked relieved. Like I was going to fried worms or raw rabbit meat. The color grey wasn't that bad!

"What kind of dango?"

"I don't know. All types, I guess."

She licked her lips. "All right. I like the color green and my favorite food is mackerel."

I knew what mackerel was, but I never got the chance to taste it. From the looks of it at the market, it seems to be quite tasty. I think in my other life I had tried it. Can't remember, can't remember…

She tried again. "So… How's ninja life for you kids?"

Sen jumped to it. "Awesome! We get to throw sharp weapons and stuff and, and learn these cool jutsu like what Jirobo told me last week, and, and…" Ameno cut her off.

"It's cool, I guess."

My turn. "It's troublesome."

The assault when on and on until dinner time. To save rations, I hunted another bird. Never will I ever harm a bunny. Never. For the next few days, that was what we had for dinner. I seasoned it with herbs and dried fruits, so our client wouldn't grow too used to it. Breakfast was just food we found along the way, like apples. Actually, we only had apples since it was spring and all food were flowers at this time. Apples are a diverse species in the Land of Fire. There are spring apples, summer apples, autumn apples, and winter apples. The spring and winter ones grow in the north, where we were. The others were farther south, close to Konohagakure.

Lunch was something I managed to whisk out of our packs. It varied between flat bread and top ramen. The latter was my pick, of course. Naruto had something going on in his mind about ramen. Ramen, ramen, ramen.

And, finally, the week long trek of the Fire country was finished!

"Halt! State the reason why Rain-nin are in Konoha territory!" Said the border guard.

Again, Ameno spoke. "We are here on an errand. We have to protect this lady from thugs and highway bandits. She's opening up some sort of tea shop and needs to gather supplies in the Land of Tea. Cutting through the Fire Country was time efficient. Your other border guard cleared us, y'know."

She let us pass. Yay.

It was high noon, so Ozaki-san was awake. "Wow…" She marveled at how different the scenery changed in one step. "The border is so clear."

The Tea country is like the northern tropics. The Fire country is like a normal forest. Just one step and the climate already changes. I took off my jacket. No need for that. I felt how the temperature rose. That was not normal. I took a step backwards. It was colder. Then forwards. Warmer.

"It's a chakra sensing barrier." I realized. So that was how other great nations knew of attacks and when to strike. Orochimaru will hijack the barrier, so nobody knows of his invasion. Clever. He was a former Konoha-nin, after all. And smarter than a Nara.

The border guard sent us a look to get on already and we did so.

The Land of Tea isn't a shinobi nation, so there were no border guards. It was neutral area. But it was allied with Konohagakure and Kusagakure and the Land of Rivers. There was a very powerful daimyo, too. He was getting old, though. I think. Civilians look a lot older than what a ninja would suspect, since the constant energy flowing within us created healthier, stronger looks. And no acne. Le gasp!

It was why most kunoichi were fangirls. Or drama queens. Or vain fellows. Or-.

"We'll rest here for tonight." Ameno said. That was it. No questions, but not an order. She was the designated leader of the mission.

I shrugged. "All right." That was fine by me.

Sen went off to gather firewood, Ameno watched over our client, and I started the hunt. There were especially a lot of birds in the spring, since they were returning from there migratory pattern. I caught three birds. I was kind of tired of catching food already, so I prepared jerky. That way it would last for another three days.

We ate, then took shifts. I had the last shift, during sun rise. Lucky me. The sunrises were always so beautiful.


	6. Orochimaru Wants His Ex Back!

**By Falling Leaves and Raining Sky**

 **Every theory, I figured, came with a good cause and effect. Just one step down and the final piece was already snatched. So which was the more preferable way to be done with it? As if my life was the unknown x, then I'd be the bitter loser who couldn't turn the tables. OC-Insert.**

 **…**

 **A/N: This has upgraded a level. With language.**

 **…**

 **Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

 **…**

 ** _Fact of the Day: Madara's hobby is falconry. Huh._**

 **…**

"Apricot, ma'am?"

Ozaki-san smiled and took the dried fruit from my offering palms. Sen had packed a lot more food then she was supposed to, so we would be left with spoils. Good thing our customer had a large appetite. I most certainly couldn't finish all that. Never waste food. You just feel guilty somehow. When you know that beggar on the street could've eaten that. But only we smaller nations who are still affected by the wars know of true pain. The five great nations don't understand. Not one bit. There were some filler episodes, I remembered, about Ajisai and Tenten near the ending of the anime. Ajisai spoke of true pain, and Tenten, being an innocent genin of a great nation, didn't have a clue.

Aw, well, she will understand when the fourth shinobi war comes around.

Yep. I don't have the capabilities to stop it. I'm only a genin with a bit more knowledge than others. Though, by that time, I'm hoping to actually be promoted and turned to chunin. And fight in the war, if Rain-nin are allowed.

Or jounin.

Nah, that's pushing it too far.

Only Kakashi became a jounin at twelve (though I'd be sixteen, then). Not that random Rain ninja with no mommy.

Maybe a tokubetsu jounin…?

The first thug appeared during the single day interlude of our customer's harvesting. I, being the cruel and heartless one, threw a kunai at its stomach. He'd live, but only if he checked that gaping wound by the end of tomorrow. Or else he'd-.

I cut my thoughts. Ninjas were tools. Ninja didn't have emotion. I was a ninja.

This was the price I was willing to pay for my career.

I switched with Ameno for the middle watch. I couldn't sleep, anyways, so I wasn't going to waste hers.

My mind was blank. Nothing but random thoughts of normal people came to mind. I was strong. This was me. I was made for this. I was older than even our weak-willed client. I was strong. I was strong. I was strong. Not unbeatable, as in arrogance wise, but I was an adult. I could handle anything…

Ninja often have a little hobby to cope with hardships. For Kakashi, he always found amusement in being late and making ludicrous lies. And reading porn novels. Kurenai drank vodka. Asuma smoked. The fabled Sannin Jiraiya had the hardest time, so he always did "research". Might Gai might seem eccentric, but training was the way to wash his brain away.

My hobby to cope… I didn't need one. I was still healthy, alive, intact, and somewhat sane and all my closest companions had their memories intact.

I was being arrogant, I knew that. But I was older than everyone. My pride would be the end of me.

The lazy status quo was a disguise, was it not?

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Sen. What do you see?"

She stared far and wide, her pupils dilating so small, they looked like little black grains of uncooked rice. "A group. Five of them. Two carry rusty samurai katanas. Stolen, maybe? Three, including those two are quite scrawny. The remainder are like giants."

Ameno nodded, making it look like a natural head bob. Our client's safety was our goal, so Ozaki-san was left over here without any info of the planned bandit attack. Good thing Sen was a sensor. Otherwise she might shriek and piss herself to death. The funds from her would be cut at least fifty present. And team would get a bad social standing. No one wanted to hire an incapable group. I repeat: no one.

Ameno dispatched herself, selling the excuse of needing to pee.

Ozaki-san bought it.

Well… why couldn't have I gone instead? I actually needed to go. But lunch time was nearing, so I would have to wait or the customer would be suspicious of our coordinated pee chart. Nobody can organize bathroom break time. Biological needs.

Bladders aside, Ameno came back a few minutes later. She whispered, "Unconscious and stuck in the highest tree in the area." Good job.

Another thug popped out of nowhere and claimed he was going to rob us and sell the older girl to a brothel. Ameno shuddered and told me she should've let her knock out that dude. But I found everything so suspicious. Bandits appeared every day since yesterday with exactly three hours in-between. Like, all the time, I should say, since watches were expensive. I kept it to myself. Coincidences do happen, right?

The Land of Tea wasn't known for frequent stealing and purse-snatchings. It was a relatively peaceful place.

Was Ozaki-san keeping us from something?

No, I told myself. Not everybody had wacky C-ranked missions like Team Seven. But Tazuna the bridge builder couldn't have been the only client to have lied to his/her guards.

"Hey…"

And the assault of questions started again.

"Do you have any preferred choice of clothing? There's a small village near here and I thought you girls could buy some clothes. And snacks."

…Or not…

The mission leader shrugged. "Hey. Sure. Why not?"

What's the worst that could go wrong?

Never mind that. Rhetorical.

The village, in fact, was the central village. With that Land of Tea arc stuff. Between the Wagarashi's and whatnot. The last mission Sasuke ever took with Team Seven before the Sound Four poisoned him with Orochimaru's revenge induced hickey. The strangest techniques happen to be the evilest. Y'know whenever Orochimaru slithers inside a snake, he faces the world in an upright position, and the venom shooter inside the snake's mouth looks like his-.

"Ozaki-san. Which stall would you like to visit?"

Saved from my crass thoughts by Ameno's polite speech.

"Hmm. How about the dango one?"

We went. I ordered five sticks. We all payed separately. If I was reborn in Konoha, then Anko would be my best friend. Mm, mm, mm.

Mitarashi dango was the best. Topped with sesame seeds.

We didn't buy any clothes, since everyone was satisfied about their wardrobe. Another change. People here only had like one outfit. Oh yes, there were spares and formal items and swimwear, but people always had one fad they followed. For me, I was quite comfortable with just a white shirt and blue cargo pants. Plus ninja mesh and frequently changed bandages on my legs.

Include shoes, too.

I'm not the type to walk barefoot. That's like a Tarzan move. _King of the jungle, king of the jungle_ …

Then, since Ozaki-san said that we would stay in the Tea country for the night. Our hotel was located near the forest. The client had booked a real nice view room.

"CHARGE! WAAH! FOR MONEY!"

Sen dispatched them with ease. Jesus, how weak were civilians? And yet another three hours passed since the last attack. Okay. Time to spit.

"Yo, guys? Something's off."

Ameno nodded. "I noticed that, too."

Sen did her weird Byakugan thing. "That's strange. All the animals are gone. The whole forest is quiet and eerie."

Ozaki-san looked ready to piss herself. "I knew it. Someone was tailing me."

Ameno practically glowered. "And you didn't tell us this before because…"

Our client let out an "eep!"

"Um… W-Well… Y-You see… I couldn't really say that in my report, since, y'know, Ame laws don't want paranoid people…?"

That sounded like a question.

I sighed. It was so obvious. "If money's the problem, then just pay us over time, once you get it."

She froze. "How did you…"

"Your clothes are drabby and that rainproof jacket is the cheapest of its kind. Your horse's stall was located at the back corner, indicating that you were poor, since the expensive stalls are up front. You care deeply for your mare, so I assumed that if you had the money, she would be placed up front. Your appetite is purely out of spite, not hunger, meaning you don't have enough food up home and want to expend on that."

I tapped my ears. "I never heard your stomach growl. Meaning that you're used to quick bites."

"I have ten other reasons why, but frankly, I don't care. Just next time, say your suspicions. If it's upgraded a rank because of that, and you don't have the money, then save it. Plan a few months prior."

I sighed again. "When you asked if we were enough to handle a stalker who can apparently command bandits and thugs, please give us some hint for preparedness. Hanzo of the Salamander's greatest and favorite quote was ' _Unpreparedness is your worst enemy_ '. Or something like that."

Jaws were unhinged. Maybe I shouldn't have spoken too much? Using up my voice was a pain, sometimes.

I snapped. "What?"

Ameno and Sen swallowed. "Nothing."

The walk to the hotel was silent. No one said a word after my accusatory speech. Man, my vocal cords were tired.

The hotel's lights were off. Strange. Usually people would leave lights on, since it wasn't that late. And the staff didn't want to leave any inconveniences. My teammates caught that trail of thinking. Using chakra to power my muscles, I grabbed Ozaki-san bridal style with one hand clamped shut over her open mouth. Then carried her with long, chakra powered jumps to the middle of town. The night square had lanterns strung about, illuminating faces and the cobblestone. I shifted the customer to a piggy-back ride, telling her to shut up. Ozaki-san was obedient. But not for long.

"Sorry."

"Shut it."

It had to be an interesting sight, seeing a middle aged woman ride piggy-back on a young child. Who, were standing on the tip of the fountain. Just one misstep and we'll all go crashing down into the water. It was even more interesting so, since more people were about to celebrate some sort of Tea country annual festival. So more people to go and say, "Oh look!" Perfect. Just perfect… Today of all days just had to be a festival. No wonder people were selling all those little knick-knacks.

"Um… Where are your friends?"

My voice was gruff, I knew it. "Investigating the hotel. They're supposed to come back in ten minutes."

"What happens if they… don't?"

"Then they're rather dead, or taken in as a hostage for your little 'Stalker'."

She winced. This was the ideal time to talk. We were in plain sight, so nobody could drag us away into dark alleys. And who would bother reading our lips? The noise was loud and full of cheer, so we couldn't be overheard. "Say, who is this guy? You _will_ tell me all you know of him."

Or her.

The lying client winced. Again. Her backbone was full of loose screws.

"He's, well… my husband."

Oh. Almost lost my footing, there. But seriously? The cliché "my-jealous-ex"?

"You see, I divorced him because I found out he was doing all these bad things. Drug trades, illegal money-making, y'know…"

"Get on with it."

"Okay. Um… He swore that he would make me see from his perspective one day, and vanished. Since then, I've been a little paranoid about random stuff. But when I realized that I was running out of money, I thought about opening a tea shop. He and I had always loved tea, so that's what I thought. But the only profitable supplies are over here, and I knew that my husband's main bandit employee hideout worked in the Tea country, so I put up a mission. It turned this way in the end. Someone must've spilled that they saw me during our trek."

Huh. This sad sob story was missing its main elements.

"What's your ex's name?"

"Orochimaru."

HOLY SMOKES! ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDING ME?!

I stifled the urge to scream. "U-Uh… Okay… So, h-has this 'Orochimaru' ever made some evil potion… I mean _tea_! For you?"

Yoshiko creased her eyebrows in concentration. "Yes. Loads of times. They never tasted any good, though. All weird and full of gunk."

Okay, okay, calm down Naoki. Just because there's one guy named Orochimaru doesn't mean that he's the real one. I mean, what are the chances of a Sannin running away from his wife? Since they were super strong and all, any of them could fight or put a genjutsu love spell. Hehe… I was thinking in denial. But the fact that it seems like 'Orochimaru' had fed her one of his weird potions/medicine/evil poison doesn't sound very good.

But there was another something wrong.

"Did you have any kids?"

"What? No."

YES! A MAJOR CRISIS AVOIDED! MITSUKI WAS THE ONLY KID HE/SHE COULD EVER HAVE, SINCE MITSUKI WAS BORN AFTER ALL THE PLOT BOOM!

But it was still unknown to me whether Orochimaru was the mom or the dad.

"Good. Hey, can you explain to me what he looks like?"

"Black hair, black eyes, extremely muscled and slightly tan."

…That is not Orochimaru. He just happened to share the same name. OH MY FRIGGIN GOD!

Whew!

I waited for twenty minutes, owning up to the ten minute absence.

"Whelp. I think you killed my teammates."

Yoshiko trembled. In fact, that was uncomfortable. I shifted her the other way, hopping on one foot to another. She was kind of heavy.

Then again, I was seven, and she, thirty-something.

"Does he have a surname?"

Yoshiko mulled over that. "I think it was… like, Rock?"

Oh. _Oh_. Time to prove it.

"How big were his eyebrows?"

"Very, very thick."

Oh, shoot. Oh, shoot.

"We're going in."

"WAIT, WHA-?"

 _Bam, bam_. I karate chopped her neck. She was out like a flash.

During the five second interlude of jumping, I learned something new about Naoki Hino. She can jump to conclusions quite fast and very quickly. I mean, at first I thought that Yoshiko's ex was some sort of bandit king. Then _Orochimaru_. Then not anymore, and now I have my suspicions about him being Rock Lee's (Lee Rock?) father or uncle. Perhaps cousin. Poor bloke was named after the bad ass rogue Sannin. This bandit lord was born, bred, and named when the Sannin were only ten years old. So of course the parents had no knowledge of that consequence.

I draped our unfaithful client on the roof, and dropped into the chimney chute. With my water release, I gathered all the nervous saliva and sweat from my body into a ball to my open palm and dropped it. Worked perfectly. All the ash and soot followed, clinging on like a puppy. That meant when I slid down the chute, my clothing and skin wouldn't catch a stain. It's kind of a bad impression when fighting your enemies. Covered in gunk.

Naoki the Chimney Sweeper. Not the best battle name nor cry.

Using chakra, I slowly crawled down the cozy tunnel. I was thankful for my small size. Now, this building all shared the same pipework system. So if I crawled four meters, then I'd be on the seventh floor, the top. If I crawled down eight meters, then I'd be inside the sixth floor's chimney. Lucky I didn't have to waste anymore chakra, since everyone was inside the top floor. However, I jumped into the wrong chimney, so I had to stealthily pace myself out of a random abandoned room. It belonged to a man, since I could smell cologne from the bathroom.

But the lights were off and the twenty-something year old civilian man was bound and gagged on the full bed. Gee. Yoshiko's ex was so troublesome.

"Sit tight, lock the doors, I'll help you out the window." The man was still gagged, but I freed him of the rope.

After that refreshing jump, I made my way into the hall.

First things first, change appearances. Using the Henge, I transformed into a burly man with no teeth. Ew. My breath stank.

And I walked like a panda, since my mind and body wasn't used to the height.

"Oh look! It's a newbie!" Some four stocky guys made their way over to me.

"What's your name, newbie?"

I thought about it, looking stupid. "Chewbacca." Hey, whatever works, right?

"Chu-baka? Heh, this guy's an idiot. I don't think he even knows where to meet. Do you?"

I rasped a "no".

They chortled. "Oh, you're hilarious! You can join our group if you want, y'know."

I rumbled. "Room, first."

Oh gee, this low manly man voice was straining my vocal cords.

"Sure thing, Chu-baka."

They lead the way. The room was in fact a family sized hotel room, so it was big enough to accommodate us all. There were at least fifty people. It was smushy and smelly with all these bodies.

A man who fit Yoshiko's appearance list rose high on the bed. The ceiling caved from his head.

"Shuddup!" He roared. Three human shaped sacks laid around him. Ameno, Sen, who was the third?

The whispers and vulgar language halted to a stop.

"We have found three children for ransom! MONEY!"

"MONEY!" The others cheered. I would've winced if my ears weren't so plugged with the Henge's earwax.

He lifted the sacks. Whilst doing that, the cloth fell off, revealing three children. Let's see, two unconscious Rain-nin, and one eight year old boy. With a shiny Chinese bowl-cut and bushy eyebrows. Huh. Did this Bandit-Orochimaru intend to sell his own kid? Nah, it's a coincidence. It's so not Rock Lee. I mean, what are the chances?

Magically (and coincidently, I might add) all three of them woke up. Everybody had different reactions. Ameno cursed her tongue twisted, Sen shrieked, the other boy sneezed, and the bad guys shouted.

"Oh no! This is terrible! I seem to be captured alongside two other companions!" The boy said loudly. Gee. Didn't he know that Rain-nin aren't allied with anybody?

Or his teacher hadn't covered foreigners yet.

It was a possibility.

But these guys seemed too into it, so I cut all possibilities.

"Oi!" I shouted. Heads turned. "Those are ninja!"

Heads turned again. Ameno and Sen's forehead protractor's were visible. On said forehead.

Bowl-cut guy was definitely an academy student. His chakra was bigger than average. But the coils were… off. As in developed irregularly. They lead too far, even intertwining with each other and right through. So that kid would have serious backlash if he ever attempted ninjutsu. Or genjutsu. The only way he could ever graduate would be to have a recommendation from an upper-class ninja or have exceptional grades in taijutsu.

Yup. That is _so_ not Rock Lee.

"Yosh! I may not be a ninja yet, but I am training in the academy!" Said bowl-cut guy.

I added in the two cents. "Aren't the ninja wannabe brats under the protection of the Hokage?"

Everyone left. Just like that. I say that, the next thing I know, the hotel's completely deserted. Ba-bam.

I dissolved my transformation. "That was easy."

My teammates slithered out of the bags. Bowl-cut guy pretty much ripped it open to escape.

"Now, first things first, where's our client?"

"On the roof. You go get her. I'll deal with bowl-cut guy."

"Roger." They bolted out the window.

I faced fore-mentioned brat. "Say… what's your name?"

Bowl-cut guy made me do a double take. "Rock Lee!"

Ohhhhhhh, _snap_.

Well, some optimistic part of me bargained, maybe he's not the Rock Lee? Lee is a common name, and remember Orochi-bandit-maru?

Noticing my silence, he spoke. "Yosh! Thank you for saving me!"

Yup. So not Rock Lee."

"Where do you live?"

"Konoha! Though, this doesn't seem like Konoha. Where are we?"

"Uh… The Land of Tea."

"Where's that?"

Doesn't Rock Lee know his geography? "The country south of Konohagakure."

His face was comical. "Oh no."

"Yeah, oh no."

He shouted with little tears. "Oh no! What do I do? I'm so far away from home!"

I sighed. He was still blubbering. "Oi, shut up!"

His mouth snapped together into one straight line. "How about I escort you to back to a Konoha border guard? He'll bring you back once his shift is done."

Rock Lee assumed a thinking pose. "Oh yes. That's right."

"Now come on. We don't have time to dilly dally."

"Yosh! Let's go!"

-o-

My first time meeting a main (or important) character: three years ago. Who? Konan.

My second time meeting a main character: a few hours ago. Who? Rock Lee.

Very, very different people.

The border guard had no right to question us once Rock Lee was in his hands. So we left, with Yoshiko still asleep on her mighty steed.

The horse of hers never really got the chance to run freely without rain beating down on his back. So we three plus one horse ran all through the Fire country. It was exhilarating. With all this magic pumping through me, running at top speeds with wind whipping my short hair, I felt… for the lack of better word, awesome. Spectacular.

But sometimes it felt like my teeth were going to cave in when I opened my mouth, or my scalp was peeling.

I didn't want to be a bald Naoki.

There wasn't nothing but basic girly vanity about me, but naturally the basics had worries about losing all my hair. It would grow back eventually, but it wouldn't be the same. I purposely grew it to this perfect length with these perfectly messy and outgrown bangs. It was shaggy and messy and spiky all at the same time, because that's how I do my hair in the mornings. Seriously. You could see the gel whenever I bought that… In hopes of creating a natural look in the near future. It's called 'training scalps 101'. I bought the book. It's really handy…

Don't dis me.

It took us three days instead of seven, this time around to reach Ame.

Run like the wind!

The guards investigated the extra herb sacks that wasn't there from our first leaving. After a while, they concluded it was safe, and let us go.

-o-

"So you're telling me that the client was hiding something?"

"Yes." I said. I was never one to take sides, anyhow. "But it's still only a C-rank, since the only enemy we had to face was Orochimaru."

He spluttered. "Orochimaru?!"

I nodded. "Yeah. Just Orochimaru. Our client's ex."

He coughed. "And you're still alive?"

I nodded. "Yeah. There was this bandit lord coincidentally named Orochimaru, and-."

"He's not **_the_** Orochimaru?!"

"Yes. It's actually quite a common name, if you hadn't realized."

"Huh."

"Anyways, Ameno and Sen later told me they purposely got captured because one didn't want to leave the other and vice-versa, so they used the time absence as a calling for me to save their butts. There was another kid named Rock Lee who was also captured, and he was training to be a ninja from Konoha. I took him to their border guard and left, and now here we are!"

"You need a pay raise."

"Why, thank you."

He had already excused Ameno and Sen, since there was nothing they had to say. I did the dirty infiltration, rescuing, escaping, and keeping the client alive, so I gave the report. In Ame, you could rather write your report due within three weeks, or say it out loud. Most upperclassmen wrote theirs, since they were too butt-tired after strenuous B-ranks and A-ranks. But this was the perk of being a genin.

Yay…

"Is that all?"

"Well… I helped a man escape from the hotel. If I left anybody else, then they've probably been rescued by the Tea country's police force and detectives."

They weren't good as the Uchiha clan's, though.

But the Uchiha clansmen were as dead as a dodo. So, yeah…

"You're dismissed."

"Bye-bye!" I opened the window and dropped off. It was six floors high; not bad. I think somebody screeched when they saw me falling out of a window. But with five seconds of a count down before Naoki went _SPLAT_ , I righted myself and dropped elegantly on my feet.

"Show off." One of the orphans muttered, passing through the street. I think he was taking a lovely walk. But you never knew. He didn't pass the examination due to insufficient chakra control. So he was wet from head to toe. Only the staff members of Hito owned umbrellas.

"Try passing the examinations next time, then. Huh?"

He clicked his tongue and purposely bumped shoulders with me. I staged a trip, but performed a front flip using one hand.

"What'd you say? I couldn't hear you."

He scowled and ran off. Jerk. And rude.

But hey! I was showing off. Boy, did I love it. Only when the lazy bugs went away, though.

Bragging is too much of a drag otherwise.

-o-

"Yo ho! How'd it go?"

"Hmm… she was gone an awful long time, don't ya think?"

"Yeah. Maybe she ran off to live with all those elderly. Maybe she's turned into a granny."

I clicked my tongue. "In your dreams, bitch baby."

Yui growled. Bullies. I was sick of them. Always picking on me since I'm kinda weird. Not that I blame them.

"Who're you callin' bitch, bitch?"

Yeah. Even we little brats knew all this colorful language the headmaster so sparingly uses. "You."

She punched me right in the face. Ow. Since it's against the law for ninja to attack civilians, the bullies have been trying to get to us ninja. With dirty tricks. Dirty, lying, fat, little, bitch, little…

Yui sacked my stomach this time. Reika scratched the same cheek the former punched. Kagome kicked my shin. It hurt really, really badly, but I _wanted_ them to hurt me. Now, now, I wasn't a masochist by any means (maybe), but this was good practice for pain endurance tests. Who knew someday out there I might paralyze from unprepared pain in the middle of the field? So the bullying threesome of girls were really good heroes. Maybe after the war or a deathly battle, I'll thank them somehow.

So you've concluded to why I wear so many bandages on bandage-able body parts.

They were cheap, too, and who wouldn't want to buy cheap first-aid?

I said nothing during the whole encounter. My lips were twisted into a tortured grimace, but no sound came out. Little tears peaked out from the corners of my eyes.

And finally, finally, it was over.

I washed up the best I could and bandaged all the wounds. They'd heal by tomorrow.

-o-o-

"Yosh! Good morning my fellow classmates! Yesterday I had been abducted by bandits and some foreign ninja saved me from their clutches!"

Thirty little kids stared incredulously. Neji cocked an eyebrow, too confused by the random outburst to say anything witty.

Tenten sighed. "Again?"

Rock Lee protested. "No, no! This is the first time! There was a ninja with weird slashes on her hitae-ate-!"

The teacher, who had been listening behind the door, came in. "How was the metal designed?"

Everyone was curious. They had just begun on the foreign stuff lessons.

Rock Lee struck a pose. "Let's see… Oh, yes, I got it! It had four vertical slashes!"

Sakamoto-sensei gaped. "That was a ninja from Amegakure!"

"Oh, and she looked to be my age or younger!"

Sakamoto-sensei later wrote a report to the Hokage of hearing about child prodigies in Amegakure. He would definitely want to know more about the mysterious rainy country. Even Jiraiya the Toad Sage couldn't break through (yet). Sakamoto-sensei only did this because he knew, and nearly all of that boy's neighbors, that Rock Lee could never tell a lie. And everyone chunin and up (meaning him, too) was admitted information about some random boy being abducted by bandits.

-o-o-

I scratched my ear. Then sneezed. And scratched an elbow.

Ajisai, who was obsessed with mystical fortunes and palm-readings, gasped. "Do you know what those signs mean?"

My nose twitched. Didn't sneezing mean someone was talking about you? Well, bullies were probably planning something and my teammates were maybe discussing routines. "No."

Ajisai shook her head, hiding a giggle. "Someone far away is talking about you. There is good fortune along in the mix."

Rock Lee, no doubt.

Damn brat.

 **A/N:**

 **Please review! Reviews are helpful and I like comments. Please tell me about mistakes!**


	7. In Which The 5,000 Cycle Is Broken

**By Falling Leaves and Raining Sky**

 **Every theory, I figured, came with a good cause and effect. Just one step down and the final piece was already snatched. So which was the more preferable way to be done with it? As if my life was the unknown x, then I'd be a bitter loser who couldn't turn the tables. OC-Insert.**

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 **…**

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 **Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns all. I mean** ** _everything_** **.**

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 **…**

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 **A/N:**

 **Yo. I just read a poem some night ago that gave me the feels (*sob*).**

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 **…**

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 ** _Fact of the day: Iruka's name means_** **dolphin** ** _._** ** _Or it was his surname, Umino_** **.**

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 **…**

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 _Who the hell wrote this poem?_

My fists clenched the paper, creating little creases.

This morning I woke up and found a folded note tucked neatly in my hair. After getting ready for the day, I wandered to an abandoned corridor to read it.

 _Childish, you still are._

 _Hatred or not, you though still move forward._

 _Umbrellas seem to be useless,_

 _Nor your rainproof coat, who has an impenetrable ward._

 _In the nigh you scurry out,_

 _Naming things with your mighty sword._

I reread it. This person was a stalker. But, well, I found the hidden message on the second try. The paper had a blueish tinge to it, so I suspected Konan was the stalker. It would explain the fineness and quality. And why I see little paper butterflies flitting about all the time. Only recently.

I jammed the note into a pocket somewhere in my pants and consulted my teammates.

"You get it?"

"Yeah."

"Understand?"

"Yeah."

"Where to?"

Ameno shrugged. "Ask the office."

Yup. They might have a clue.

Today was Sunday, so we trained the full day, fitting Ameno's schedule.

The next day was Monday, and since school got out the week before, so we trained the weekend schedule. There were generally less chores in the summer break, since over half of them rotated around cleaning the floors from the extra rain water coming in. Summer still rained, but not as much. Equating to less chores. Meaning more free time. Yay.

Wednesday was the only off day we allowed ourselves free. You know, for extra shopping, extra healing, extra break time, resting, sleeping…

The usual. Yatta, yatta.

On off-day Wednesday, I visited the office. The sleepy man grumbled. "Oh, it's just you." Then went back to snoozing.

I lightly tapped his head. "Hello? Anybody in here?"

He grumbled again. "Sometimes I regret promoting you."

I smirked. "How nice of you to say that. Anyways, when's the upcoming chunin exams?"

"In two months or so. The beginning of June. The official date hasn't released yet."

"Where?"

You got to ask the location. Ame would never send ninja to Iwa, since we had a secret grudge against them. They _did_ cause the most damage to us during the war, after all. But no idiot would openly declare their hatred. Naruto and Obito not included in the package.

"Hmm… Let's see."

He shuffled through some papers.

"Aha! Found it!"

The suspense was killing me. "What? Where!"

"Sunagakure." The Land of wind. Gaara. Kazekage. Shukaku. Oh snap.

"Huh." I left the room, saying my thanks as in to not be rude. Life would be even more troublesome that way.

Ameno and Sen were my magnets. They popped out of nowhere. "Location?"

"Sunagakure." They didn't know about Gaara. The mentally traumatized Jinchuriki of Shukaku with a thing for blood, so they just shrugged.

"Hey, I know we're not ready for the promotion, but at least it'll be great experience." One of them optimized.

"Sure." Agreed the other.

"Naoki, you in?"

I gulped down my fears. "Yeah, all right." As long as Gaara didn't involve himself with the exams, then everything would be fine. Hopefully.

* * *

-o-

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The average temperature here is about 4.4 Celsius (40 degrees Fahrenheit). Anything higher was too hot and anything lower was too cold.

How had I survived that C-rank mission? It was, like, twice as hot as it was over here.

So that was the reason why all Rain-nin are always seen with ponchos or some kind of jacket. Because it has friggin air insulation made from chakra pouches interlaced in whatever the material is. Of course, whenever it's the right temperature again, you could see our true clothes once we take them off. Little paper butterflies carried tons of those cloaks to us five groups. Fifteen ninja competing for Ame. Which was ironic, since we didn't really allow outside service. The only way to bring money from outside sources were Konan's and Daichi's percentage given to the village from Akatsuki missions.

Stuff like assassinations and infiltrations and the sort. Big, fat wallets, they must have.

Then the rain stopped pouring and paper swirled in the rays of sunlight. Angel-sama held her chin up defiantly. I totally believed that she was a real angel there for a whole second. No jokes. The background scenery had something to do with it.

"You have all been chosen for competing in the upcoming chunin exams event."

Her voice was sadder than the mermaid's sigh, clearer than the glistening raindrops, and more beautiful than when lightning strikes the blue moon. We paid attentively to her voice, her speech, her spell. "Do not worry about winning the exams. No, kami-sama encourages to fight for us, for Ame. We will fight to show that we are not weak, and we are strong. The great wars have not yet healed, but that is not what will let us down."

Angel-sama's piercing light orange eyes scanned the crowd. "Kami-sama knows that you will not let him down."

And she left. In a flash of paper. I expected the clouds to cover up the skies again, but, surprisingly, for the rest of the day, it stayed clear.

I woke up the next day to the lull of the sweet, sweet sunrays splashing color on my face from the window. Now, I suppose that most would welcome back the rain if they lived in it for the entirety of their whole lives. But, instead, I welcomed the sun. The warmth of the sun lasted the whole week. It rained again on Sunday, but lifted once midnight hit. To the nearest second.

With the warmth soaking up my very being, there was no use for my rainproof shield, except on Sundays. The cycle lasted.

I could close my eyes and relax, resting peacefully on the roof. The sun wasn't too bright, impaling my senses even under drooped eyelids. The air no longer smelled of ozone. I could take deep, fresh breaths of the summer without choking. The heat wasn't uncomfortable enough to sweat, far from it. My days felt to be deep with harmony and peace.

But I'd wake from that wonderful dream when my ears caught the faint scream of a women being mugged by your daily petty alley bandit. The sight of unforgivable actions set my heart to unrest and the day was ruined. Sometimes, just sometimes, when the world finally died, I wished for my soul to start anew in heaven with no action, no blood. I hated me for being me; for acting this lazy act and not _doing_ anything. I was required to wear my mask, because I had grown too attached to Ameno and Sen. Removing those two could not be done. They were bright balls of sunshine, compared to my own black husk.

Even though they were ninja, Ameno and Sen knew how to smile after a hard day and could keep it going for hours at a time. Days, too. I was cruel, selfish, and a pathological liar. I told myself that in the end, everything would turn out alright. And I had started to believe it.

* * *

-o-

* * *

"Target spotted. Fifteen meters."

"Analyzed."

"Whenever you're ready, Yami." Without even thinking, I forged ahead and slit the man's throat. Ninja do not have emotions.

It was irony, plain irony that my codename for this mission would be 'darkness'.

"Ame nuke-nin: identified. Forty-thousand yen for Setsuna Akutagawa."

He was a missing chunin who abandoned us because his pay wasn't good enough. Sad to rid his soul from the world, but a job's a job. Whatever kami-sama wanted, he got.

The main reason why the chunin couldn't defend himself from a mere genin like me was because he specialized in melee, so once he was within Ameno's reach of the Scorpion Hands technique, he was injured real bad. It was only a matter of tracking the guy and ending him right then and there.

Fore-mentioned person whistled. "Man, are you a sadist?"

I replied with a blank face and a droll tone. "Or maybe a special branch of masochism?"

They punched me in the arms at my attempt of humor. Which, to say, was horrible. Naoki the human girl couldn't crack a joke to save her life.

Since nobody knew how to seal things into scrolls that were much bigger than said scroll and nobody here was even slightly interested in learning art of sealing, I disposed of his body and carried his head by the hair. Maybe to scare away visitors, I could buy an apartment and hang a body-less head on the knocker. But then the landlord would get angry and possibly kick me out.

I'd need a lot more money to afford an apartment. The average over here was fifty-five thousand yen per month. Which was ridiculously cheap compared to other nations, whose average had to be in the 80's or 90's. But still expensive. The longest you could hold a debt was about ten months before you were blacklisted and kicked out.

The man who was behind the desk stared long and hard at the head. Setsuna's face was blue and wrinkled, but his DNA samples were safely stored away if someone bothered to check if we killed the right man. Nobody would, since the threat was a no-faced chunin who had barely earned his promotion.

The man scratched his beard, still staring at the head. "Y'know, when I was your ages, I played with my sisters with dolls and read fantasy-adventure novels."

Point taken. "Ninja are meant to be tools," I piped in, flashing a glamorous fake smile. He shooed us away.

Today was Sunday, so it was raining. So. Very. Hard.

The ozone of thunderstorms and lightning flashes were slightly nostalgic as I recalled my early years of just staring out the window. Could you say that being seven felt too old?

…No. Just no. I had to wait until I was at least in the double digits.

"Give me a number." Sen, complete with a cherub expression said.

I thought about it, savoring the time I wasn't using my voice. "Nine."

Don't even want to ask why she needed that number. Too lazy. I was damn tired after yesterday. Today was off-day Wednesday, so yay! No work!

"Why?"

I stared coldly, smiling. "You don't want to know."

Ameno butted in. "…?"

Sen was strangely persistent. Something was wrong here. "I want to know."

I made a humming noise like I was amused in a predator-like position. The girls bit their lip. I took note of the exact same expression. "The number nine is how many people I've killed."

The shoe dropped. Ameno balled a fist and punched my cheek.

I was shocked by the sudden turn of events. My mouth stayed clamped shut, but my head was turning gears and looking for any possible explanation. Sen didn't shout out at Ameno for violence, they both mirrored each other's expressions, and my cheek stung. Because my ball of sunshine and innocence had truly meant to _hurt_ me.

"Just quit being a ninja already! Can't you see how much it's affecting you?!"

What.

I stayed quiet, not giving the satisfaction to the person who intended to hurt me with noises of outrage.

"And-And, you weren't always like this, this mindless drone!" Ameno burst out. The words would've been heard by every living soul in the village if it weren't for the brisk winds up on the roof.

"You're tearing up from the inside! Why do you hide your emotions? Sen and I have noticed your fake smiles, Naoki!"

I stayed very, very still. Ameno and Sen were mad at me. They were mad at me. My only key to not losing my mind to this mean, dirty world had punched me. I would have cried if not for saving face and utter confusion. It was just that painful. As Ameno yelled at me for hiding behind a mask and Sen stood at her side like a creeping shadow, but with one true side. A side that didn't have me included.

I was that much of a foreigner to them.

Yes, I do admit that if it weren't for me, Ameno and Sen could be at each other's neck and side without the uncooperative, lazy liaison. A world without one Naoki Hino would've ended spectacularly. Perhaps little ripples from my unnecessary second life would affect the shinobi world. What could I do then? Fall prey to the Infinite Tsukuyomi while the God Tree slowly sucked out my chakra until all was left a granny as a husk? Split-second contemplation decided to not argue. My teammates were correct. How had they ever figured it out, though?

"You need to visit the doctor. Get your head checked." They sent me looks of pain, because it hurt them to say this as much as it hurt me. Then they vanished from the rooftop. After an interlude of ten seconds, my lower lip wavered and tears burst freely from my face.

I had concluded that as the first time I had cried in this world sans the forgotten early years. The tears were salty and made my face puffy. The punch stung more than normal, since the weight of emotion was also on there. My breathing hitched and I sniveled snot. I had no control over this unknown factor in my life. My arrogance earned me regret and tears. I should've trusted them like they trusted me. Now the friendship was ruined.

I was all alone in the shinobi world with not a single soul to call a friend.

But, that was when he came.

I remembered my training field and this sudden bout of dizziness. I told myself not to overexert chakra usage again, and tried marching home. That was when the dream came to be. Now, I knew that I wasn't trapped in reality anymore, so enjoying the floating sensation of dreaming was pure.

When I floated to this hideous gate with the mask of the Shinigami, I touched it. My heart longed for company, and there he was.

I woke up flat on my face. Oomph. Jolting up, I noticed that there was another person lying around. He was awake, but not entirely… alive.

He had to be at least twelve years old, set with brown hair and green-gray eyes. He had a good tan, too. What perturbed me the most was his wide open eyes… and how the surrounding color of the pupils were black, and not white. Indeed not. I was too scared to touch him and ran away.

It was in the middle of the night with a full moon, so it was too late to go to Hito. I found a good hiding spot that would be my shelter for the night and tried to sleep. The air was warm and the night sweaty, so I shifted to another side, only to meet the side of the same boy. I jumped up and almost screamed, but the boy looked too familiar for me to go elsewhere now. But who was he? How had he gotten here? Is someone following me? Gingerly, I poked an index finger on his stomach.

Chakra uncontrollably jerked from that finger into his system. My hand was in spasm and I leaped back a few meters. The connection stopped, then the boy began to breathe, blink, and get up.

He blinked many times, just staring at me. "…Who are you?"

I coughed. "Um… That's what I should be asking you, y'know."

He did a double-take, then grinned, showing two thumbs up. "Hey, that's the same verbal tick baa-chan has!"

That wasn't a verbal tick… Just use of the shinobi languages…

A necklace over his shirt glinted in the moonlight. It held a very special blue crystal. No way…

"Where did you get that necklace?" I pointed at the prominent crystal. He smiled so wide it was nearly impossible. Not in Ame, at the very least.

"Nee-chan gave it to me for my twelfth birthday! She's the best sister in the whole wide world! Though, I do have this little flashback of this scary assassin coming to kill me for the necklace and my blood heritage, though here I am whole and alive talking to you! It's probably just my imagination."

This was confusing. "Who is this 'nee-chan' of yours?"

He frowned. "Don't you know? We're known 'round the Land of Fire, miss…"

The brunette finally noticed my headband, and how it was of the four Ame slashes. "Huh? Wait, you're an enemy ninja? Damn it, I should've known! We're still in the Second Shinobi War, after all! You will tell me your purposes, Rain-nin!"

…This brat was seriously outdated. The _Third_ Shinobi War had ended about a decade ago, never mind the first one or the second one.

I cocked an eyebrow. "Kid, the Second Shinobi War ended over twenty years ago. And you have no authority over me, since you're in neutral territory."

His mouth gaped. "Huh?"

"Listen, brat, the second great war ended over twenty years ago. The Third Shinobi War ended about a decade ago. And nobody knows you 'round these parts. So just go back to the Fire Country or whatever."

The tension was due to the silence in the air. "What."

I cleared my throat. "Yeah, whatever. So, I can escort you to the borders of Ame, but you'll need a mighty good excuse to why you were in here for the first place. The guards aren't too nice. And if you claim you suddenly came from the past, then nobody's gonna believe it."

The corners of his eyes were damper with every passing second. He scrunched himself in a ball and stayed there, chanting a mantra. _"It's all a dream, it's all a dream…"_

This was a huge headache. So we got a potential thief who was good enough to steal from Tsunade Senju with a really bad case of amnesia and was possibly a pathological liar. Brilliant. And said boy was crying.

I cleared my throat. This was uncomfortable. "Uh… I just realized we've had a whole conversation without knowing each other's names. So, hi. Yeah. My name's Naoki. Naoki Hino. What about you?"

The boy wiped his eyes and stood on his knees to be the same height as me. Sort of. Why was I so short…?

"M-My name's Na-Nawaki. Nawaki Senju."

Oh, shit. You have got to be fucking kidding me.

…He _was_ a pathological liar.

This time, I frowned. "You do realize that Nawaki Senju, the grandson of the first Hokage died? Right? The only recorded and known to be living Senju left is Tsunade Senju."

Nawaki's face fell. "Please, please, you have to believe me, Naoki-chan. I think I'm from the past." He began rambling.

And if I summed up the facts to the very similar looks and personality to Naruto, the boy whom Tsunade compared her younger brother against, the evidence was right there. In flesh and blood. Heck, he _smelled_ like trees. Nobody could act like long-dead Nawaki, since, well, everyone who knew him well were rather wasting away on sake, or were dead. More likely the latter. Why? Because he was from _thirty_ years ago. Practically the entire life span of one average ninja.

I quieted his whimpering. "Okay, I think you're right. Your evidence is right in my face."

Nawaki visibly changed from worried to 'oh-my-god-she-believes-me'.

"Thank you. Thank you. B-But, how can I escape back to Konoha? Like you said, there's no war, and nee-chan's living in Konoha…"

I cut him off. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Tsunade Senju isn't in Konoha. She quit ninja life and ran away with her apprentice."

That was common knowledge. If you weren't from the past.

Nawaki blubbered, then fainted. I sighed. This was going to be a looong night.

* * *

-o-

* * *

The next morning I woke up a dawn in my hiding place. Nawaki was clutching me like a teddy bear. I blushed, and yanked his arms off. He woke up from that.

"Wh-Whoa! This isn't Konoha, it's… Oh. Right. Ame." The Senju's shoulders drooped. I patted his back. Sucked to be the brat.

His clothes, I noticed were perfectly kept, even though we had been sleeping on the ground. And his skin wasn't the least bit damaged with maybe rubble rash or covered in dirt. His scarf never swayed, even when he walked. Strange. The only time it did was when he adjusted the position of it.

"So, uh, I'm sorry if you're gonna get in trouble with your parents for staying out a night…" He rubbed the back of his head, looking sheepish.

I said in a monotone, "I don't have parents."

Nawaki Senju, I guessed, lived a pampered life as a Senju and the grandson of the first Hokage. He didn't understand when somebody stated that they didn't have something he did. But thank you, Nawaki, for reminding me that I should really visit Nagisa soon.

"Oh. Uh, I'm sorry. I-I didn't-."

"Don't worry. I don't mind." I marched towards the streets. Both our stomach's grumbled. Taking that as a cue, I headed to a café I really liked, with Nawaki following.

"Where are we going?" He hammered. I poked his stomach, catching it mid-growl.

"To eat breakfast."

He jumped. "Oh, no! That's okay. I mean, I can pay!"

Nawaki dug into his back pockets of his pants and fished out an expensive looking wallet. He waved it around. "See? See?"

I grabbed his arm and yanked it down.

"Zip it. This isn't Konoha, brat. Over half the village makes a living as a thug. You just revealed the location of your fat wallet. Hang onto it and make sure it's in your front pocket this time, or in your shoes." I hissed.

He wisely shut up and walked a step behind me. When we reached the café and were seated in a booth, he asked a question. "Why do you call me _gaki_ when you're actually the one who's younger?"

Stupid me. Let's wing this. "I have degofurakukuokansiunaminda."

"Say what?"

I am a patient of this unknown and incredibly long word I made up on the bat. "I have degofurakukuokansiunaminda, which is a condition of being mentally more mature like an adult. But it only occurs in kids who haven't started puberty. You probably haven't heard of it, nor your sister, even though she's a medic-nin, since it's really rare."

It's "really rare" because I'm the only child who actually has the mindset of an adult. Literally speaking.

Nawaki bought it all. "Wow. That's weird. So you're older than m-!"

I clamped my hand over his mouth when two people entered the café. Once they were seated and not scanning the crowd, I took the Henge of a boy Nawaki's age and forcibly dragged him out, saying to the barista that we suddenly felt sick. I let him free once we were well outside.

He coughed. "Bleh! What was that for?"

"It's a game I'm playing with some people. I have to avoid their watch for a whole week. If they don't spot me in record time, then they lose; I win."

Nawaki brightened. "Cool. That sounds fun!"

I was so lucky that Nawaki was an idiot. A total, utter idiotic moron. I wasn't too sure if he was rather the rookie of his year, or the dead-last. Both were quite possible.

* * *

 **…**

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Yo. Sup. College started, so I won't be updating as frequently, but still nonetheless. Signing out, TMPH.**


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